From the Ashes I Rise
by Vhaenya
Summary: If one were to ask Dabi when things starting rolling down the hill towards Shitsville he would know exactly where to point in his timeline, saying "There, there is where I should've just stayed in bed that day." Second part of The Phoenix Rising Chronicles.
1. Prologue

It's a cold and bitter day and in Dabi's opinion, those days are the worst. From the combination of the dry winter air and the freezing winds- his burn scars start to tighten and pull against his surgical staples leaving him feeling like he's walking around wrapped in saran wrap while being assaulted by pins and needles.

One time Toga gave him some lotion just because he was bitching so much about the unpleasant tugs and strains. Whatever was in her lotion disagreed with his burns and they started to bubble up and blister- the intensity of it was nearly as bad as when he first got his modifications to begin with. Now he side eyes anything that Toga tries to give him.

He was called into a meeting with the rest of the big dogs in The League of Villains. He never really paid attention to the meetings, normally they consisted of Spinner, Twice and Toga sitting in a corner somewhere playing the knife game with one of Toga's many knives while Mr. Compress dozes off in the other corner. Even Shigaraki himself usually gets distracted soon after the meeting starts and drifts off to play a video game on the bar counter. Leaving Kurogiri sighing as he tries to herd them back to the meeting.

That day is different though. Dabi arrived late and everyone is sitting attentively at the same table, no one was napping and not a glint of silver to be seen anywhere. Even the television is on mute.

Little did Dabi know that today is the day that the fates decided to throw Dabi into a garbage disposal and flip the switch on high before spitting him back out again.

Earlier in the day, Shigaraki had gotten word from one of their peons that a hero wants to contact them- a proposition, the peon told him. Shigaraki at first wanted to lull the hero into the hideout and then eradicate them in true Shigaraki fashion. Kurogiri talked him down from that and pointed out that they may have valuable information and instead convinced the sulking man to hold a meeting with the rest of his little elite group.

The insistent chatter between everyone soon gets on Dabi's nerves. Hero this, hero that. Hero, hero hero. Their room is bubbling over with excitement at this new turn of events and Dabi tries to ignore the constant drone of this damn hero and orders a drink, hoping a buzz will help with his mood.

"Dabi here will be the one going to meet this little hero and see what this proposition is that they have in mind." Dabi is dragged into the conversation that he didn't want to have to begin with and sets his half empty drink down with a frown.  
"Uhh- what makes you think that I'm just going to go and meet up with some damn hero?" Shigaraki doesn't look up from one of the disembodied hands that he's fidgeting with.

"Well," He drawls, "Everyone else already has other missions. If you think that you can just sit around all day and drink all my good booze away, you got another thing coming for you. Might as well do something meaningful with your life."

* * *

He grumbles as he pulls his trench coat closer to himself and suppresses the urge to just start a fire to warm himself up. Dabi rubs at the burn scars across his face idly and feels the dips and grooves of the healed scars- his surgical staples drawn tight from the cold and leaving him slightly uncomfortable from the sensation.

Nonetheless, he waits. He was able to get a hold of this hero that wants to contact them so bad earlier in the day and gave him the coordinates to a meetup spot.

Fortunately he doesn't have to wait for long. Incoming footsteps alerts Dabi to the approaching hero. Taking a final drag from his cigarette, he turns around to greet this renegade hero.

Coming face to face with a man he's seen on television plenty of times, none other than the Number Two Hero: Hawks. He doesn't let the surprise of *this* is who wants to join the League show on his face. Dabi can't afford that sort of luxury, he has to play the role of the unassuming and cold villain.

Seeing Hawks in person, he realizes how *pretty* the man is. Standing about a head shorter than Dabi but certainly more well built than Dabi. His sun kissed skin is smooth and free of any blemishes, Dabi allows his eyes to wander up to the windswept golden hair and the ferocity behind his eyes- spun like liquid gold, he thinks to himself. Finally, he allows himself to look at the most remarkable feature of the young hero. His magnificent vermilion wings that flutter under Dabi's gaze- the only telling feature that Hawks is nervous. He leans back against the cold brick wall and for once doesn't notice the cold; this person that had just walked into his life with his vibrant colors and obnoxious fashion, seemingly filling his bleak world with warmth.

He finally allows his mask to slip with a sly curve of a smirk as he gives the hero a second look down.

"Well, hello little bird."

* * *

Author's Note

I always forget to post here on FanFiction. Oops.

Anyways, here's just the prologue, I know it's a little short but the actual chapters will be a lot longer.

Reviews are always welcome!


	2. Chapter 1

"So what does our little renegade hero want from us?" Dabi takes a glance at Shigaraki as he steps through the hideout's door, shrugging off his trench coat, he takes his usual seat at the bar and fishes for a cigarette. Shigaraki gives him a disapproving frown and sets down his Gameboy- giving Dabi his full and undivided attention.

"I think you should be asking _who_ is our renegade hero, Shigaraki." The other man pauses, a grin growing on his gaunt face- his scar twisting his grin into something more mocking and lopsided.

"Alright, I'll bite. Who decided to come knocking at our door?" Dabi feels a grin of his own growing as he lights his cigarette with a snap of his fingers, a trick he picked up as a teenager, and blows the smoke up towards the ceiling; he watches the smoke twist and curl before dispersing. Dabi finally allows himself to bring his attention back to Shigaraki and he can't help but to chuckle.

"Well, it's none other than the newly appointed Number Two Hero- Hawks." He watches in amusement as Shigaraki's eyes widen in surprise and then narrow back to suspicion.

"Really?" Dabi extinguishes the newly lit cigarette against the ash tray and stretches, feeling the tightness of his staples that are pulling against his skin.

"Yeah, he was ranting about something like being fed up with the system or wanting to be able to have control of his own life. Some sorta typical bullshit reason to want to join the dark side."

"So were you even really listening?" Dabi side eyes Shigaraki with a smirk."Hmm?" He laughs at the man's impatient huff, "I mean at first yeah, but he just talks _so_ fuckin' much; thought my ears were about to start bleeding. He was just squawking away with not a care in the world. I don't even know if he was bothered at the fact that he was talking to a villain."

"He must be pretty lonely if he thinks _you're_ fun to talk to."

"Hey, I'm a fucking delight." Shigaraki nods and rolls his eyes after a moment and stands up, his lanky frame slouching over. He pockets his Gameboy and studies Dabi with bored, red eyes.

"Think you might want to invest in a dictionary because you're the furthest thing from a delight." Shigaraki deadpans. He doesn't seem to have any of his hands on, not even Father. Dabi briefly wonders if maybe it's hand washing day- he makes a note to check the washer. Watching a dozen or so hands thunk around in a spin cycle at top speed would be an interesting way for him to spend the rest of his Saturday.

"Well fuck you too then."

"Just continue to keep in contact with our little sellout," Shigaraki heads to the back door- probably to play a different video game. Dabi can just imagine Shigaraki hunkered down in his dark room playing Call of Duty or mostly likely Overwatch- nerfing players left and right. "Consider this to be your personal assignment." Dabi mock salutes him and stands up as well.

"You got it, boss-man."

* * *

So starts the most infuriating, yet amusing couple of weeks of Dabi's life. He loves to see how far he can get with ruffling the hero's feathers yet at the same time, it irritates him to no end when Hawks gets on his own nerves. At least he can say that he never denied being a hypocrite.

"Those are gonna be the death of you one of these days." He peers down at his shorter companion and smirks at the man who's giving him a disgusted look, Hawks' nose wrinkles up as he dramatically waves the smoke away from his face.

"Maybe that's the plan." Hawks huffs and draws his jacket closer to himself.  
"Then your plan sucks ass because you're still here." Dabi can't help but to snort and takes another drag of his cigarette.

"Aren't you hero types supposed to prevent nicotine addiction?" Hawks shrugs and looks over his shoulder, poor man is still worried about being followed, Dabi thinks to himself.

"I mean, you're the one that wants to die. By all means, be my guest dude."

"Unfortunate that you'll lose your only connection to the League if I decide to kick the bucket." Hawks shrugs again and takes a few strides ahead of him.

"Well damn, it's not like you're giving me much options here. First you wanna die and the next second you're saying that I'm supposed to save you? You're kinda giving me mixed signals here."

"What can I say? I'm a complicated guy," Dabi pauses at the end of the alley way and throws away the butt of his cigarette and studies the winged hero. He must've just gotten off of his shift, he thinks to himself because Hawks is still in his hero getup and for a very brief and fleeting second- he tells himself on how good Hawks looks with his tight shirt.

Dabi reminds himself to get laid before his next rendezvous with the little snitch. He doesn't really know if he will be able to handle another meeting with this man who doesn't seem to know when to stop with the form fitting clothes. If the cigarettes doesn't kill him, Dabi thinks, it will definitely be the way that Hawks' shirts cling oh so deliciously to him. It's nearly unfair, leaving nothing to his perverse imagination.

"I have a mission for you little hero." He grins slowly as he sees the man's wings quiver with frustration.

"Will you stop fucking calling me that?"

"Depends, will you stop with your little goody two shoe act?" Dabi feels a growing flutter of smugness as Hawks is at a loss of words, "Mmhmm, that's what I thought."

"You know that I have to keep up this little hero façade." Dabi dares to take a step closer to Hawks. As much as he wants to run a hand through the man's brilliant crimson wings- he resists.

"And you know that it's only us here. No need for such formalities." Hawks smirks up to him and places a gloved hand against his chest before shoving Dabi back out of his bubble.  
"No need for such unprofessionalism either, just tell me what you need to have done."

"Clearly your boss taught you to not have fun either." He shoves his hands into his pockets and studies the hero's next movements closely. Pleased at the fact that a light dusting of blush spreads across his cheeks.

"Please, I know how to have fun. Fun is my middle name, I'd really rather just have my business and personal lives separate. Saves the drama." Dabi snorts and pulls out a piece of paper that has coordinates on it.

"Yeah, yeah whatever you say little hero," He tosses the crumpled paper at Hawks, who fumbles with it for a heartbeat. "Just make sure that there's no heroes around at midnight at this location. We have an important deal going down and can't afford any fuck ups."

"What the fuck do you take me for? Chopped liver? Why waste my potential? We both know what I'm capable of." Dabi pretends to ponder, taping a finger against his scarred chin.

"Hold up there Speedy Gonzales. We just can't trust you right off the bat, do you think that we were all born yesterday? We all know that you're a backstabbing little snitch to your own company, why should we even trust you with anything more than lookout duty?" Hawks crosses his arms and glowers up at Dabi, a fire brewing behind his golden eyes.

"What will it take for you to trust me? It's been almost a month now." At Hawks' impatient whining, Dabi allows a chuckle before he rests a palm against the cold brick wall, cutting the blond hero off from the rest of the alley.

"Don't underestimate us, little bird. Or that will be the last god damned mistake you'll ever make in your little pathetic life. You don't make the calls around here, capiche? That's up to me and me only. If I tell you to make sure that there's no heroes there, you best believe that when I show up to my little meeting- there better be no fucking heroes. Just like if I tell you to jump off of a cliff, you better do that too. If you want this little relationship of ours to continue," He pauses and leans in closer to Hawks' personal space, "Then this better go without a hitch." Dabi takes a step back from Hawks and gives him a final grin before retreating back to the shadows.

"What if I can't stop the other hero's patrols at that time?" Dabi allows a spark of flame to flicker to life in the middle of his palm as he shoots a thin grin at Hawks.

"Then you better pray to whatever god that you believe in that we never meet again, because I won't hesitate to burn you alive until you're nothing but ash and forgotten in this cruel and cold little world of ours."

* * *

Author's Note

I kept starting this chapter and then scraping it because nothing didn't really feel right. But! But now I have a good timeline set out. So this second part of the series will have bits of what happens before, during and after what happens in From the Fire I Breathe. That's all for now. Until then, fairwinds.

Reviews are always welcome!


	3. Chapter 2

If Dabi has to admit one thing, it's that Hawks is certainly good enough at keeping his word. Even with the most ridiculous assignments that Dabi thinks up of, Hawks does it. Not without complaining of course, but at the end of the day- he still gets shit done.

As he relays the latest tidbits that Hawks tells him to the rest of the League, he spies Toga looking up at him with a suspicious gleam in her eyes. Dabi decides that it would be better not to provoke her, asking her why she's looking at him so strangely would be like dangling a T-bone steak in front of a hungry lion. It would open Pandora's Box and he has absolutely no interest in opening it and seeing what chaos resides inside.

Ignorance is bliss, he tells himself.

"I don't believe that he's being totally honest with us." Shigaraki mutters, Dabi is a little surprised- the man hadn't said anything at all for the past hour and instead had been focusing everything on his Switch. Even now, he doesn't look up from his game.

"No shit Sherlock." Dabi smiles as a frown sets in on Shigaraki's face. If there's anything in life that he enjoys, it would have to be getting under Shigaraki's skin.

"Well," Toga breathes out, her cheeks dusted with a light blush as she spins a knife against the table they're sitting around, "I could pay him a little visit! I've always wondered how a top hero would look covered in blood." Twice shies away from Toga for a second before shaking his head.  
"Toga, we talked about this. No stabby."

"It's what Stainy would've wanted!" She pouts and shoves the tip of the knife into the table. Dabi hears a defeated sigh from Kurogiri and sees the misty man shaking his head in the corner of his eyes.

"Stain isn't here." Shigaraki finally sets down his Switch and barely even bothers to glance at Toga as she crosses her arms and glowers down at the table, "I don't want to hear anything about Stain for the rest of the day. He clearly didn't know what he was doing- otherwise he wouldn't be stuck in Tartarus for the rest of his life."

Dabi crosses his own arms and leans back against the back of his chair. He knows that Shigaraki knows that the only reason why he even has his elite group is because of Stain to begin with. Without Stain's ideology and the sudden upraise of followers, Shigaraki's League of Villains would most likely still be an unknown criminal organization with nothing but the failure of USJ's attack to show for. Dabi doesn't bother to remind Shigaraki of this, because once again- he knows that Shigaraki knows this.

That's enough satisfaction.

"Then how do you wish to proceed with this?" Mr. Compress speaks up, his prosthetic fingers tapping idly against the edge of the table. Everyone says nothing as they look towards Shigaraki, Dabi can nearly see the gears turning in his head- thinking of where to go from here. He doesn't mind being the leader of the vanguard but wouldn't want to actually be the leader of the League- too much decision making. Dabi is much more of a behind the scenes kinda guy, also with the fact that he typically goes with the flow- he doubts that he would make that much a good leader.

"We have to know what he's hiding from us." Spinner offers his blatantly obvious thoughts and Shigaraki nods.

"Dabi." Here it comes, Dabi thinks to himself.

"Yeah?" Shigaraki turns his attention to Dabi and stays quiet, mulling over what he wants to say next.

"I need you to gain his trust."

"Well damn. Do you want me to take him out to dinner or something? Maybe even see a movie?" Laughter breaks out over the table and Shigaraki shrugs.

"If that's what it takes for him to trust you, then I don't care. I know that he's still leaking information to his agency and not giving us anything to work with. I want you to change that." Dabi runs his hands over his face, some of his staples snag against his hands and he makes a note to replace them in the future as it seems some of them are starting to get loose.

"I suppose I could charm him with my striking good looks." Shigaraki snorts and picks up his Switch again.

"Think it's time for you to see an eye doctor, Dabi. Or at least look in a mirror... if the mirror wouldn't break first." Dabi shakes his head at everyone's laughter at his own expense.

"Don't think that you look any better, do you even know what chapstick is?"

* * *

"Y'know, most people would be worried about being led into a creepy, dark and abandoned building with a villain." Dabi shrugs as he pries open the warehouse's door, gritting his teeth against the sound of the door screeching against the floor.

"Well, most people possess a brain and some common sense- both of which you don't seem to have."

"You have such a way with words." He hears the grumbled reply behind him as he leads Hawks deeper into the warehouse- the blue of his flames is the only light in the inky darkness.

"Like, zoinks. Can't you ever pick a _normal_ place for meetings?" Dabi chuckles and looks over his shoulder at Hawks, the blue light paints him in a nearly ominous tone with the shadows that stretch and fall with the flicker of his flames. Their footsteps echo off the empty rooms and Dabi can imagine the ghosts of the past walking with them down the forlorn hallway, whispers and shadows float around them. His mother always told him he had an over active imagination, he supposes some things never change.

"Scared of what lies in the dark little bird?"

"More like that you'll kill me and leave my rotting body in this piece of shit." Dabi scoffs and treads further ahead, leading them to a stairwell.

"If I wanted to kill you, I would've saved myself the trouble and done it when we first met."

"As if that makes me feel any better."  
"It should. You're talking to a serial killer, remember."

"Thanks for the reminder, now I feel _much_ better." He allows a smile, knowing that Hawks can't see him in the dark.

"Good." They fall into silence as they start to climb the old stairs, an old and musty smell fills the air. A smell that he can only relate to opening a mausoleum that's been sealed for decades, just a general decrepit and very unpleasant smell.

"Guess it's a good thing I didn't have dinner yet- this place fucking smells like shit."

"Do you ever stop bitching?" Some of the stairs groan under their weight and Dabi unconsciously picks up his pace, not wanting to plummet down a couple of floors.

"I'm in an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere at three in the morning with a serial killer and no one knows where I'm at. I think I'm bitching just the right amount for someone in my situation."

"You don't see me bitching." He hears a single bark of laughter behind him as they continue up the stairs.

"What do _you_ need to bitch about?"

"Hmm, maybe being in an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere at three in the morning with the Number Two Hero who doesn't know how to shut up and is giving me a migraine?" He doesn't really have a migraine quite yet but can feel the creeping tendrils of one, the smell of the warehouse is certainly not helping either. Of course today would be the day he forgot to take a Claritin. He's going to suffer from a stuffy nose and watery eyes for the rest of the day most likely.

"At least come up with an original come back." Dabi sighs and side eyes the hero beside him.

"Alright, how about this? Shut the fuck up." Hawks shrugs and shoots him a wry smile.

"Eh, guess that's better than nothing." Dabi rolls his eyes and stops at the last stair, he pushes open the door and after a moment it gives and slowly creaks open. Hawks peers over Dabi's shoulder and looks back at him with narrowed eyes.

"If you wanted to go up to the rooftop, I could've just flown us up."

"I like making my life complicated." There's no way in hell that he's going to admit to Hawks that he gets motion sickness and hates flying.

"I can tell." Dabi breathes in the cold winter air, the clean and crisp air pushing back the threat of his migraine, and gazes up at the twinkling stars before turning around and facing Hawks.  
"I ain't gonna sugarcoat this one." Hawks sighs and leans against the crumbling brick wall.

"Do you ever sugarcoat anything?" Dabi decides to ignore Hawks' question and instead throws a file at him. Hawks squints as he strains to read the file in the dark, he looks back up at Dabi with wide eyes.

"What the fuck. What did this guy do to you guys?" Dabi gives him a sneer.

"Does it matter? He needs to learn his lesson. Consider it your initiation trial."

"Seems like I've been doing a lot of initiation trials. I feel like this is just hazing at this point." Dabi nods sagely and stares back up at the stars.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Just make sure to get it done. I'll need proof to show my boss so don't think you can skirt around the edges."

* * *

To Dabi's pleasant surprise, Hawks does not skirt around the edges. A few days later, Dabi is back at the hideout with photos of a particularly nasty scene. He spreads the photos across the table and the group studies them with keen interest. Toga's eyes flit from tiny detail to tiny detail with a satisfied smile. Spinner, on the other hand, barely glances at it and claims that he could've done better. It's not their opinions that he's interested to hear though, instead Dabi finds himself staring across the table at Shigaraki.

"I'm still not convinced that he's secretly a villain," Shigaraki mumbles as he studies the photos closely- picking one up to get a closer look, "I've read his record."

"I mean, he killed a man." Twice waves a photo, reminding Shigaraki.

"Heroes kill all the time. Besides, that was a clone in case you forgot Twice." Dabi leans towards the table and stares at Shigaraki thoughtfully.

"Why did you want him to kill a clone anyway? Not much fun in that."

"Because I wanted to see if he could even kill. This is a hero that can save hundreds of lives at once with those feathers of his. If he ended up not being able to kill a clone, think of the mess if he couldn't complete his mission against an actual person."

"Wouldn't that be what we want though?" Spinner mutters, still not looking at the photos.

" _No_ ," Shigaraki replies patiently, "What if he had made a scene or the target had gotten away? If we want this deal to work- we have to know that he's reliable and creating a mess would not exactly be reliable." Dabi personally thinks that this latest assignment was pretty useless, he knows that Hawks is a reliable source of information and can operate under incognito but nonetheless, he respects Shigaraki's caution.

"Dabi," He's brought back from his own thoughts and nods to indicate that he's listening, though he wishes that he was just sleeping instead. "I want you to show him that his heroes aren't what he thinks they are."

"I'm pretty sure that he knows. He works with them." Shigaraki's red eyes bore into his own and he sees a ghost of a smile flicker on the man's chapped lips. He knows that Shigaraki is thinking about Endeavor. Dabi curses himself for ever thinking that he could hide the fact of being Endeavor's son from All for One's protégé, he breaks away from Shigaraki's gaze and glares down at the table.

"Yeah okay, whatever."

* * *

"Annnd here we are once again, if I didn't know any better- I'd think that you miss me." The winged hero slurs as his shoulder briefly bumps against Dabi.

"Self preening won't get you anywhere." Hawks laughs humorlessly and sighs, his thumb running over the lip of his beer bottle, "Didn't take you for a beer kinda person."

"Sometimes I like to crack a cold one open." They pass under a flickering streetlamp and Dabi takes a second to take a closer look at Hawks. Dabi doesn't know how many beers Hawks downed before meeting up but enough for him to be walking anything but a straight line and a ruddy blush covers his face. Even with his blush- Dabi can still see the presence of dark eye circles. He knows that the last time that he saw them that there were no eye circles or even eye bags at that.

He asks himself if the last assignment that he gave Hawks is messing with his sleep. Could that have been Hawks' first "kill"?

How much is Hawks willing to risk? Dabi wonders, how much is he, himself, is willing to risk? Just how much is either of them willing to sacrifice for a mission neither of them even wanted in the beginning? How much longer must they dance around their hypothetical chess board- just waiting for the other to make the wrong move? He nearly pities the both of them. In the big picture, they're nothing but pawns on an even bigger chess board.

Hawks breaks him away from his contemplating.

"You sure self preening won't get me anywhere because you're sure staring at me a lot." He ends with a clumsy wink and Dabi pushes Hawks away.

"You look like shit."

"Wow, you use that pick up line on everyone?"

"That wasn't a pick up line, idiot." Hawks waves him away and finishes the rest of his beer.

"Whatever you say. So where are we going tonight?"

"Thought we would just take a stroll." Dabi decided after his meeting yesterday with Shigaraki that he would start the first part of his plan to show Hawks the fruit of the heroes' failures- the seediest district of the city. He knows that no heroes ever bother to check out that part of the city and doubts that even half of the heroes even know that this district exists.

As they continue down the road, Hawks grows more quiet and Dabi feels a surge of pride as he smugly smiles down at the shorter man. Hawks takes a look around the dilapidated buildings and the trash piling around long forgotten trash cans.

"Welcome to the shittiest place to be. Thanks to heroes being busy with their own pointless chase for fame, they always forget this place. Nothing ever good comes out of this place."

"That's not true." Hawks' reply is so soft that Dabi nearly misses it, "This is where I lived as a kid." Dabi pauses, Hawks doesn't notice and continues to stumble down the road- nearly falling into a pot hole. Did he hear Hawks right?

His contacts never could find out where the Number Two Hero grew up but Dabi always figured he grew up with plush comfort of the wealthy. He can hardly imagine Hawks as a child running around half clothed and malnourished like he's seen with today's street urchins.

Just who is this man? Dabi bemusedly thinks as he watches Hawks' figure get swallowed up in the darkness of the neighborhood before he finally trails after him.

* * *

Author's Note

This story will definitely be longer than its predecessor because I haven't even gotten to where From the Fire I Breathe starts. I have a feeling that the League or at least Shigaraki knows that Hawks is being a double agent. Oh, I hope nothing bad happens to him. Horikoshi, please keep him safe. Also, I like to think that in this timeline, Shigaraki found out about Dabi's parentage. He's a smart cookie. That's all for now, until then. Fairwinds.

Reviews are always welcome!


	4. Chapter 3

"Fuck." Dabi hisses out as the last medical staple clatters to the bloodied sink. He takes a moment to stare at himself in the mirror, the right part of his face looks like someone had tried to peel him. He pours some hydrogen peroxide on a cotton ball and gingerly dabs it on his skin to prevent infection, his right hand clenches at the edge of the sink and he closes his eyes. No matter how clean he keeps his modifications- the life of a villain isn't exactly the most hygienic and cleaning with peroxide always hurts like a bitch.

He pauses and takes in a deep breath before holding his skin up and taking a new staple and piercing it through his skin. Dabi continues to loop several more staples into his cheek until his scarred skin is held up once more. He cleans it again, watching in the mirror as the cotton ball soaks up the blood- turning a dark crimson. He knows that he should probably check over the rest of his staples to see if any of them need replacing but ultimately decides that he'll leave that up for the future. Instead, he opens the medicine cabinet and with shaking hands- opens up a bottle of morphine. Tipping his head back, he dry swallows two pills and puts the bottle away and sighs at the bloody mess of the sink.

Another day, another shit show- he thinks to himself as he starts to clean the sink.

* * *

Toga plops down next to Dabi and throws her legs over his own and she snatches the remote from him.

"I'm tired of watching your lame old man shows!" He doesn't put up much of a fight and watches as she flicks through the channels with indifference. A sudden and nearly forgotten about figure appears in one of the channels and before Toga can change the channel again, Dabi rips it from her grasp.

"Hey!"

"Shut up. Just gimme a second." She pouts and crosses her arms before leaving the room. He straightens up and leans in closer, his elbows resting against his knees as he stares at his baby brother on screen.

It's a rerun of the Sport's Festival- he knows because he watched it live with the rest of the League.

Dabi feels a twinge in his heart as he sees Shouto stomp his foot down and encasing one of his classmates in a glacial behemoth without breaking a sweat. The last time Dabi had even seen his brother was the night after their mother was spirited away- to be locked forever away, like a bird forgotten in its cage.

That fateful night when the Todoroki household was forever changed.

The night where Shouto decided to- up until the Sport's Festival, to refuse to use his flames in battle. Where Natsuo swore to himself that he would become a doctor so he wouldn't have to live with the guilt of looking at the glaringly heartbreaking scar that Shouto would have to bear for the rest of his life. Fuyumi and her brilliant mind knew in her heart that her calling in life was to become a teacher- to catch signs of familial abuse. To prevent another tragedy that she has to call her family.

And Touya?

Full of nothing but his own regrets and disappointment, Touya left that night- never to come back. Touya burned away to nothing but a mere wisp and in his place stood Dabi. Hellbent in achieving his one goal in his new life.

To make Endeavor pay for the actions he wrought on his family.

Dabi senses someone standing behind him and doesn't bother looking over his shoulder to know that it's Shigaraki.

"Who knew that the great and infamous Dabi could be so pathetic?"

"We all have our moments. Some, more than others- like you." He hears a snort and Shigaraki walks around and sits down next to him, studying Dabi with his unblinking red eyes.

"Shut up you piece of over cooked shit." Shigaraki turns to the television and hums as he sees Shouto and Midoriya battling it out, "That kid really gets on my nerves."

"Yeah, yeah we all know. You have some sorta creepy vendetta against him."

"Creepy?" Dabi rolls his eyes and breaks his own gaze from the television to stare disbelieving at his boss.

"Yeah. He's like sixteen, kinda creepy. You're just fueling your hate against All Might onto the poor nerd." Shigaraki's eyes narrow and he starts to scratch at his neck.

"He _is_ All Might's little disciple. What do you want? Me to play nice with him? Want me to invite him over for a cup of tea?"  
"Holy shit, you are impossible."

"We're villains," Shigaraki pauses, "We can't have the simple pleasures in life that we desire. We left our families behind for a reason." Dabi honestly doesn't know if Shigaraki is trying to comfort him or remind him of the fact that he's supposed to be a familyness man. They sit in uncomfortable silence for what feels like hours and Dabi sighs.

"Since when did you decide to become my therapist?"

"When you decided to be a piece of dramatic emo trash." Dabi stands up from the sofa and hands Shigaraki the remote, taking one last glance at the screen- Shouto is no longer being shown and instead it's just All Might struggling to crown the victor, that annoying trigger happy Bakugou. Dabi can't believe that they even thought it would be a good idea to capture the most volatile student and none of them paused to think that he would try to kick all of their asses at once.

Though he still finds it funny that the kid managed to rip Father off from Shigaraki's face.

What a day _that_ was.  
Dabi is nearly out of the room when Shigaraki calls out to him, he pauses at the doorway- waiting.

"I think it's high time to finally meet Hawks."

* * *

Dabi can see Hawks breathe an audible sigh of relief as he runs his gloved hand through his wind swept hair.

"I was starting to think I'd never get to meet the big dogs." Dabi chuckles and only tells him the coordinates of where the meeting will take place.

"Just make sure you're there on time, little bird. Bad impressions with Shigaraki can be fatal." His observant eyes don't miss the way that Hawks' wings flutter- a trait that he does when he's nervous.

"Noted."

* * *

He stands in the shadows behind Shigaraki. Dabi knows that his boss will amp up the theatrics just to get some sort of reaction from their renegade hero. Shigaraki didn't let anyone else come to the meeting, wanting a one on one with Hawks, even Dabi was told once Hawks arrives he's to make himself scarce until the meeting is over.

A small part of him hopes that Hawks is able to take whatever Shigaraki has planned. He's come to enjoy their meetings, it gives him a sense of being grounded. That he's not losing his mind and going crazy with the rest of the League.

When the door slides open, he melts further in the shadows until he finds his exit.

"Well, if it isn't Hawks." He can hear Shigaraki sneer before Dabi quietly closes the door behind him, leaving the pro hero and villain alone.

* * *

Dabi is standing outside the building, watching a raven hop around the ground- pecking around at the ground. He doesn't know why he's been so lost in thought lately but it's starting to irritate him, he hasn't felt like himself in a couple of days and generally just feels more angry than usual.

Kurogiri calls it survivor's guilt. Dabi calls it a pain in his ass.

"Well, that was certainly an experience." A sudden and chipper voice calls out and Dabi lets out a burst of flame in surprise, "Feeling jumpy, are we?" He glares over his shoulder at a beaming Hawks and looks him up and down- searching for any signs of decay on him.

"I could've melted your face off." Hawks stands next to Dabi and the raven peers at its invasion of peace before cawing and flying off.

"And ruin this handsome face? You could never." He doesn't have it in him to squabble with the winged hero and only grunts.

"I see that Shigaraki didn't turn you to ash."

"What can I say? My charming personality even works on the most hardened of villains." If that ain't so, Dabi thinks. He starts to walk away, he doesn't bother to look back at Hawks.

"I'll contact you soon."

* * *

"Let me get this straight," Dabi pauses- pinching the bridge of his nose, "You want me to _live_ with him now?" Shigaraki doesn't even show a hint of a smile, the rest of their elite group however, mostly Toga and Twice, are giggling.

"I still don't trust him. I need someone to keep an eye on him."  
"I already _do_ keep an eye on him."

"Keep a closer eye on him then. Your shit is already packed." Kurogiri holds out a hand and offers Dabi a small black bag of his scarce belongings. He begrudgingly takes it.

"This house is a fucking nightmare."  
"Guess it's a good thing that you don't live here anymore then." Spinner matter-of-factly replies, earning more giggles from the two asshats that Dabi just now decided to put on his shit list.

Dabi takes a look around Hawks' apartment, not at all surprised at the fact that Hawks is a generally messy person. He lets his bag drop to the floor and is about to raid the kitchen when the front door opens and a very confused Hawks stands in the doorway- his mouth opening and closing, looking for the right words to say. Or maybe he decided that gaping like a fish en vogue. Either way he still looks like an idiot, Dabi thinks.

"Heya roommate." Dabi deadpans and sees the seven stages of grief flash by in seconds on Hawks' face.

"No." Hawks crosses his arms and glares back at Dabi, "No way in _hell_ ; don't you live at that bar with the rest of your friends or something?" Dabi says nothing for a long moment and lets out a huff.

* * *

Author's Note

Have a slightly down in the dumps Dabi.

I have some exciting news! I'll be starting a new one shot series about the childhood of the League and how they became villains. So far, I have four one shots thought up of. One story each for Dabi, Shigaraki, Toga and Twice. Their one shots will definitely be longer and will take a longer time to be released but I have the first one shot in the series to be scheduled to be released on January 21st, 2019. That's it for now. Until then, fairwinds.

Reviews are always welcome!


	5. Chapter 4

It's midnight and Dabi is tired. Physically, his muscles are complaining loudly and his eyes are dry and heavy. He fights an ongoing losing battle with a series of yawns as he stretches and rolls over on his back on the sofa he's too tall for. Mentally, his mind is racing one hundred miles per second and no matter how much he tells his thoughts to shut up- they just can't.

There's an occasional snore from Hawks that always startles Dabi awake from the little sleep he manages to fall into. At this point his eyes are begging for some shut eye but the smallest noises always snaps him back to attention, he makes a note to mess with the fridge and the sink in the morning- between the clanking of the fridge and the dripping sink, he's going to be driven up the wall. Dabi guesses this is why Hawks always complains about his overly expensive water bill, all his money is going down the drain. Literally.

He's always been a heavy sleeper, but in new surroundings- Dabi usually finds himself waking to even the softest whirs of a fan in a different room.

Dabi rolls over again and groans, the room is too stuffy and dry- _he_ feels dry. His lips feel cracked and his scarred skin pulls more tightly against his sutures and he's pretty sure that any sudden movements will result in some bleeding around his staples. Dabi blindly fumbles for his bag next to the sofa and roots around until he finds what he's looking for- chapstick.

"Bunk with the Number Two Hero they said," Dabi grumbles as he runs the chapstick over his chapped lips, "It'll be fun, they said. Assholes." Dabi wonders how does Shigaraki ever deal with this uncomfortable feeling. If Dabi was any less lucid, he'd be thinking that he was living in a desert rather than Hawks' apartment.

"Stupid overgrown chicken." He shoots a glare over the back of the sofa in the general direction of where the snores are coming from and he returns back to his bag- this time pulling out an old, and in some places- cracked, Nintendo 2DS that he had stolen from Shigaraki. If Dabi has to suffer so does Shigaraki, is his motto in life.

Dabi boots up with system with a smug grin, knowing that Shigaraki will be looking for his 2DS all night. After all, he only has one more chapter before completing Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. What a shame it would be if all the hours, grinding and marriages for the optimal team were to just... disappear.

"Whoops." Dabi whispers as he deletes the data, "How clumsy of me." He's never really been a fan of the RPG genre but if it's at the expense of causing Shigaraki frustration, he supposes he can play an hour or two of the game. Knowing all of his boss's hard work just got banished to the shadow realm of no return, makes his current living arrangements a little more tolerable.

Maybe it's due to his sleep deprived mind or maybe just because he never took the time to really care but he sees that there's three separate save slots for the game and with a growing smirk, he knows what he must do. How could he pass up on such a perfect opportunity?

Answer is: Dabi can't.

He starts a new game and names the character "Fuck". After going through the intro and tutorial, Dabi goes back to the home screen and starts a new game, naming the next save "You". By the time Dabi gets to the third character, he's pretty sure he has the whole introduction dialogue memorized as he mocks the characters on the screen and promptly names the last character: "Shigaraki".

After an hour of playing, the bright colors from the game causes Dabi's eyes to droop and he faintly feels the 2DS slipping out of his hands; it falls against his chest as he finally starts to slip off to sleep.

* * *

Dabi awakes a few hours later to the brightness of the sun. He cracks open an eye, confused. He has black out curtains in his room and has no idea how the sun got into his room. Looking around, he remembers his current predicament.

"I was hoping it was just a nightmare." Dabi sighs and rubs the sleep from his eyes, noticing a soft whisper of fabric falling against his arm. Looking down, a thick and plush fleece blanket is draped over him and Shigaraki's stolen 2DS sits on the table next to him- charging. Dabi snorts and rolls his eyes, leave it to a hero to make sure that even a villain is comfortable.

Speaking of which, the apartment is oddly quiet, he thinks, Dabi takes a look around Hawks' small apartment and notices it's completely void of all signs of the man. Looking around some more, he takes in the apartment.

It's a small apartment, some would call it quaint or maybe even cozy; Dabi likes to refer to it as cramped. His sofa is near the entry way of the apartment, facing a modest curved flatscreen television. Past the front door is the kitchen, separated from the rest of the apartment with a small half wall. He can still see over the wall and winces at the long forgotten about dishes that are piled up in the sink. Facing the kitchen is the bathroom- which is as cluttered as Dabi would expect from Hawks, the king of walking disasters. Shoved into the corner next to the bathroom is Hawks' double bed- lots of fleece blankets are piled up and twisted on top of his bed. Resembling a shoddy nest, Dabi thinks with amusement. The culprit of the sun's rays come from the window next to Hawks' bed and Dabi narrows his eyes at the unwelcome light. A few steps to the left from the bed is the balcony with the blinds drawn tight against the glass sliding doors.

Dabi stretches and his eyes wander to the digital clock mounted above the television. It's nearly noon and he sighs. He totally missed the League's weekly morning meeting. He eyes his phone that's shoved under a pillow, flipping it open he sees about a dozen missed calls and several texts from Twice and Shigaraki. He decides to read Twice's messages first, he needs a little comedy relief in his life before he gets his ass handed to him by Shigaraki. A short string of texts by Twice grow more and more frantic as he scrolls through them. Seems that Shigaraki noticed that his 2DS is missing and was raising hell earlier in the morning. Dabi can only hope that Spinner recorded it.

He skims through Shigaraki's irate messages next and figures that he should probably head out and deal with his pissed off boss. After he takes a shower and grabs a bite to eat. He's already late and if Shigaraki and crew hadn't busted through the front door yet- Dabi is sure that they can wait an extra hour or three as he finishes waking up for the day.

* * *

"You're late, asshole." Dabi takes a sip from his coffee and shrugs off his jacket.

"Is that how you talk to someone who brought Starbucks?" He sets down the drink holder for the rest of the villains to fight over and takes another cup and sits down next to Shigaraki who's frowning at him.

"I don't like coffee. You know that."

"Who said it was for you, creep?" His eyes narrow at Dabi.

"You need two coffees at the same time?"

"I like to live life on the edge."

"I hope you get a heart attack and die." Dabi rests his hand against his chest and pretends to look hurt.

"You'd lose your muscle then." Shigaraki snorts and watches in disdain as Dabi takes a drink out of both cups.

"You're not the muscle, that's what Toga is for."

"The brains then." Shigaraki cracks a smile.

"Guess again, Dabi. Twice can think up of better ideas than you." Dabi grimaces into his cup and shrugs.

"Well, damn. what do you keep me around for? My commentary?" Shigaraki hums and shakes his head.

"Once again, that's why I keep Twice around for."

"I can really feel the love today." Dabi grumbles before taking another drink. In the background he can hear the other members of the elite force fighting over the coffee he bought. He reminds himself for next time to buy more than one dragonfruit frappuccino.

"Maybe next time you won't be late then." Dabi waves his hand dismissively.

"We both know that nothing ever gets done during those meetings. I think I can afford to miss one."

"Don't make a habit of it." Shigaraki sneers.

"With you always up my ass, I wouldn't dream of it." Dabi finishes the rest of his coffee before pulling out the cracked 2DS, "Heard you were looking for this." He fights back a smirk as Shigaraki's eyes zero in on the gaming system in his hands. "It somehow got into my bag." He lays the 2DS on the counter and stands up as Shigaraki reaches for it.  
"Yeah. _somehow_." Dabi can hear the sarcasm dripping in his voice, "If you messed with anything, I'll send you to hell." He stares down at Shigaraki and winks at him, internally laughing at his blanching face.

"Is that a date then?" He skillfully dances away from Shigaraki's outreached hand and makes his way to the door before he can boot up the game.

"Welp, I'd love to stick around. But," Dabi pauses at the front door, leaning against the aged wood. "My monthly quota is coming up. There's someone out there just begging to be mugged today." Twice shoots him a thumb's up and he shuts the door behind him, as he hears a _very_ irritated shout from Shigaraki. Time to blast off again, Dabi thinks as he melts into the shadows and makes his escape before Shigaraki can hunt him down.

* * *

Dabi stares down at the chicken curry with concern, looking back up at Hawks- he quirks an eyebrow.

"Look, I know I'm a villain and don't have much standards but this doesn't even look right. You trying to poison me?" Hawks huffs and puffs his feathers up in annoyance.

"If someone hadn't destroyed my rice cooker, maybe the dish would look a little more presentable." Dabi groans and pushes around the too mushy rice around his plate.

"I was just trying to cook the rice faster."

"We don't use quirks in the kitchen!" Hawks huffs exasperatedly while pinching the bridge of his nose. Dabi points a finger at him.

" _You_ do." Maybe Dabi forgotten about the fact that Hawks can pop off his feathers and still control him. Maybe Dabi can say that he was even surprised when he came in one day and saw a flurry of red in the kitchen as Hawks prepared dinner one night.

" _My_ quirk doesn't result in immediate destruction, my dude."

"It wasn't that bad."

"You nearly burnt down my apartment!" Dabi doesn't say anything, because they both know that Hawks is right. Instead, Dabi takes a tentative bite from the curry.

"If this kills me, I'm going to come back to haunt you." Hawks rolls his eyes.

"Do it. I'll just get you exorcised, then I'll finally be free from you."

"Jesus, I must've forgotten to look at the calendar. It must be _Hate on Dabi Day_." Hawks stares at him inquisitively but says nothing as Dabi shakes his head. Both go back to their dinner.

* * *

There was always something that Dabi wanted to try. Now as he finds himself in the middle of the night again, listening to a snoring Hawks- he figures that tonight is the perfect time to see if the warm cup of water prank works.

He quietly gets out from the sofa and fills a cup of water up. Dabi tries to be as quiet as he can, but runs into the small dining table.

"Fuck, why the hell is this in the middle of the apartment?" He hisses as he spills some water on himself. He sets the cup of water on the table and massages his shin, knowing he's going to have a bruise in the morning. Dabi grabs the water again and snakes around the table and stands above the sleeping form of Hawks.

He allows a moment to study him, Dabi quickly notes that Hawks is not one of those people that look serene or cute when they sleep. He's splayed out in all directions with his wings spread beneath him- feathers sticking out everywhere. One arm is tucked under a pillow and the other rests on his chest. Hawks' head is tilted at an odd angle and a thin string of drool pools at between Hawks' shoulder and the pillow. It looks like he hadn't even bothered to wipe off his eye liner and currently looks like he's cosplaying as Bucky Barns from The Winter Solider.

Dabi gently takes Hawks' hand that's resting on his chest and dips it in the warm water and waits. He's not entirely sure on how long this will take but figures that he has time.

After a few minutes, much to his disappointment- no embarrassing bed wetting. He sighs, hoping for new material to tease the hero with. Looks like he will have to try harder next time.

* * *

A cold breeze bites through Dabi's jacket and he shoves his hands into his pockets as he walks down a quiet street. He has nowhere specific in mind to go and instead just wanted to stretch his legs, one can only take so much of a squawking hero. The glow of the streetlights cast the shadows away and somewhere behind him, he hears the soft calls of an owl. It's a quiet night, he doesn't feel up to par to be being a public enemy today and decided to let the public rest.

He passes a brightly lit shop and he stops when a particular flower display catches his eyes.

They're delicate flowers, a slender stem leading up to long white petals and the sight of them gives him a wave of nostalgia. Dabi remembers his mom growing these flowers in their courtyard and if he also remembers correctly, they're her favorite. He idly wonders how she's doing and he takes in a deep breath. He knows that he can't ever see her again- besides the fact that he's a villain and can put her in danger, she's also locked up in a hospital and the staff would never in a million years let him just stroll in to see her.

But.

But, they do allow deliveries. He pulls open the door, the bell chiming softly- alerting the florist of a customer. A girl not much older than himself greets him with a warm smile and he's thankful that he has on his face mask.

"I'd like to place an order for delivery." She starts typing away on her computer and he idly runs his fingers over the soft petals of the flowers he has gathered in his hand.

"Would you like to send a message as well, sir?"

"Not today."

"Okay, that's fine. Would you like to say who they're from?" He ponders for a moment, he gazes at the dainty flowers.

"If you just write: From, T. That would be great." Dabi hands the flowers over to her and completes the rest of the order. He strolls back out of the warm flower shop and back into the cold, thoughts drifting back to a mother that he hasn't seen in ten years. As he fiddles with one of his helix piercings, he wonders if she even remembers him. If only he could visit her.

Dabi continues down the street and turns into an alleyway to be swallowed up in the darkness.

* * *

Author's Note

I realized that something was missing from this story. It's their stupid pranks, so their pranks will start back up!

I like to think that it's Dabi getting the flowers for Rei instead of Endeavor because... Endeavor sucks and people like him don't deserve redemption arcs. That's all I have to say on the matter.

Scheduled updates might be a little off just because of the one shot series I'm working on but I'll do my best to stick to the promised days of Tuesdays/Fridays. That's all for now, until then, fairwinds.

Reviews are always welcome!


	6. Chapter 5

"Why? Why is he like this?" Dabi mutters to himself as he closes the bathroom door behind him. He takes a side glance into the mirror and shakes his head at his reflection. Who knew that deep fried tofu can get everywhere? Dabi double checks to make sure that the bathroom door is locked and turns on the shower.

The hot water rushes over Dabi's skin and he closes his eyes, allowing himself to be enveloped in the steaming water.

* * *

After his shower, he can still smell the grease on the sofa and he sure as hell isn't about that life of lying face down in a pile of grease.

That's what his teenage years were for.

He thinks fondly back to the days of when it was just he, himself and him. No pesky League of Villains and definitely no tofu flinging Hawks. Sometimes he thinks that he was a fool for even getting associated with the League in the first place but he also can't deny that it's been one crazy ride with them and he wouldn't trade it for anything. Not that he would ever dream to admit that aloud.

He has a reputation to uphold after all.

Dabi gathers his blanket but leaves his pillow behind, he'd have to be blind to not see that grease stain in the middle of it. He looks around the small apartment for another place to sleep, he suppose he *could* sleep on the floor but why bother when there's a nice queen sized bed just calling his name? Hawks doesn't need to be greedy and take up the whole bed. With his mind made up, he starts to shuffle towards the bed.

* * *

There are a few things that grab Dabi's attention when he wakes up in the morning. First, he's surrounded by more pillows and blankets than he's ever imagined. Second, there's a noise reverberating loudly next to him and thirdly, the source of the snores, the dead weight of the Number Two Hero lies draped across Dabi's chest in a deep sleep. Dabi tenses as he looks down at the sleeping man.

This was not how he planned to spend his day today.

Dabi tries to pry Hawks off but instead is only gathered in a tighter embrace as Hawks nuzzles into the crook of Dabi's neck.

Definitely not how Dabi wanted to spend his day.

With an alert code: red flying around wildly in his mind he shoves Hawks off of him. Instantly, Hawks' eyes shoot open and lets out a surprised squawk as he sails over the edge of the bed and onto the floor.

"What the fuck man?" Hawks glowers up at Dabi and rubs the back of his head, "The hell was that for?"

"Stay on your side of the bed, bird brain." Hawks props his arms on the side of the bed and cocks his head to the side, still frowning.

"Um, excuse me?"

"You're excused." Dabi stretches and idly scratches at his stomach. Hawks shakes his head and hits his palm against the bed.

"This is _my_ bed!"

"There is no 'me' in communism."

"First, there's no 'we' in communism either. Second, we're not even communist!" Dabi scoffs, internally smug at being able to rile up Hawks so early in the morning.

"Well, damn. Obviously not with an attitude like that, comrade."

"You are insufferable." Dabi chuckles and gives Hawks the bird.

"Tell me something that I don't know already, bird man."

* * *

Dabi finds himself in the seedy parts of the city at three in the morning. Most of the street lamps are broken and there's nothing to light his path but the moon and the stars that twinkle from above. In the distance, there's a dog barking and a woman shouting at it to shut up- a sound of breaking glass and then total silence. For a moment. Before there's a loud crack that suspiciously sounds like a gun shot ringing out from behind him and the dog's barking roars to life again.

Ah, Dabi thinks as he lights a cigarette, this is what he was missing in life. He's gotten so used to the cushy living between the League headquarters and Hawks' apartment, he's found himself missing the dangerous taste of the adrenaline during the night in this part of the city.

The fear seeking isn't what he's here for tonight though.

No.

There's a different itch that he can't quite scratch and it's been driving him crazy.

The simple and primal itch for violence. He knows what he's looking for and he also knows it's only a matter of time before he finds it in this type of neighborhood.

He wanders past a nearly deserted park, he pays the glowing eyes in the inky darkness no mind. They're not worth his time tonight. Not even when a raspy voice flings insults at him, nothing he hasn't heard before.

* * *

Dabi winds up in a run down neighborhood. Doors hanging off of hinges and windows boarded up and lawns long overgrown. A lanky cat darts across the sidewalk and runs into the brushes, he looks to where it ran from and the flickering glow of a light catches his eye. He pauses and his ears perk up at the sound of screaming and furniture crashing.

He feels a smile growing as he finally found what he was looking for. He takes a few more steps towards the dilapidated house and studies the living room through the broken window.

The sight within takes the grin away though and his eyebrows furrow in anger.

A large man is throwing a punch against the wall as he rounds towards a cowering mother and crying daughter in the corner.

It's exactly what Dabi is looking for and he sees red. He summons his flames and continues up towards the door. The shouting and crying growing even more loud. Dabi pauses at the door as he clearly hears a smack against flesh from the broken window and the crying is replaced by a muffled whimper. He cracks his knuckles and throws open the door.

"Who the fuck are you?!" The man bellows as he's reaching for the woman who stares up at him with blood running down her face, her daughter clings to her with a hand print already reddening across her cheek, begging Dabi to do something with her eyes. Dabi jerks his head towards the doorway and the woman doesn't move. He sighs as the man screams for Dabi to answer him. Dabi looks around the dirty house and sees that the walls are littered with holes and garbage piles up in all the corners. He finally allows himself to stare back at the man and the flames in his hands grow as he takes a step towards the man.

"Who I am isn't important. What is important is the fact that I'm going to burn you alive."

Kurogiri may have called it survivor's guilt but Dabi calls it fuel to the fire of his own personal mission.

Making sure that every abusive mother fucker he comes across is nothing more than a smoking pile of ash.

* * *

Dabi is in the bathroom of the hideout, bandaging himself. The fucker got him good, but in the end- nothing can escape the fury of fire.

"I just fucking replaced these too. Jesus." He pulls out a cracked staple and inwardly winces as his skin flaps against his cheek.  
"I've half a mind to go back there and set his dead body on fire again for wasting my money." The bathroom door opens and Dabi stares at Shigaraki through the mirror. Shigaraki looks him up and down with mild disgust.

"You look like shit." Dabi laughs as he fishes around for some new medical staples.

"You should see the other guy." He hears a snort and feels movement behind him as Shigaraki pushes past and sits on the edge of the bathtub, drumming his fingers against the blood stained ceramic. Kurogiri gave up a long time ago to keep the bathroom free of blood. It's a common occurrence for a villain at any time to stumble in either covered in blood or bleeding somewhere.

"Don't let Toga see you like that. She'll be all over you like a fly on shit."

"She here?" Dabi pulls out another staple and clenches his jaw, refusing to let Shigaraki see him flinch from the pain.

"No. She went on a mission an hour ago." Dabi grunts in relief and returns to cleaning out his cut. Shigaraki sighs and in the corner of his eye, sees him shaking his head.

"You're going to be in here forever. Let me help." Dabi reels, this is the first time that Shigaraki offered to help clean out his wounds.

"And have you disintegrate my face off? Fuck off, creep." Shigaraki stands up and rips the cotton pad out from Dabi's hand- mindfully keeping his pinky finger upraised.

"You fuck off. This is _my_ bar. I'm tired of all of you little shits coming in here all the time. Especially you. We kicked you out."

"Bite me." His eyes narrow as Shigaraki dabs the cotton pad against his wound, he doesn't miss the flicker of Shigaraki's lips at his wince, "Why are you even bothering to help? Go back to playing your lame game."

"Maybe I would if a certain fuckwit didn't erase my data." Shigaraki pauses, his red eyes boring holes into Dabi's, "'Sides, I gotta take a shit and you're hogging the bathroom."

"There's literally another bathroom down the hall." Shigaraki shakes his head, pulling an odd face.

"Twice is passed out in there drunk. I don't want to deal with him. There's puke all over the toilet and I'm not a damn maid." Dabi sighs and crosses his arms.

"You know, if anyone saw this- they'd think something was up." Shigaraki rolls his eyes and presses the alcohol soaked cotton pad against the cut one more time before taking it away and grabbing a staple.

"Like hell. I have standards."

"Wow."

"Speaking of which," Shigaraki begins, a thin smile grows on his gaunt face, "How's your mission going?"

"How is that speaking of which?" Shigaraki rolls his eyes and deftly loops the first staple through his wound.

"You stare at him like he's a piece of meat, you freak." For once, Dabi has no come backs for Shigaraki and instead stares at him bemusedly. Shigaraki laughs under his breath as he loops the second staple through.

"Don't underestimate me, Dabi. I have fucking eyes," He hands Dabi a washcloth and turns away, "Now get the hell outta my bathroom."

* * *

Dabi sits down at one of the bar's tables in a daze. Sure, Hawks has a nice piece of ass and Dabi would be lying if he says that he never found himself in a day dream or two about the winged hero but that's it. Right? He runs a hand through his hair and groans, suddenly deciding that he's too sober to deal with these thoughts.

"Kurogiri, gimme a scotch on the rocks."

* * *

Author's Note

I'm sorry if the writing is a little weak in this chapter, I got hit in the face with writer's block while writing this chapter.

I promise, I'll actually start putting Hawks in this story... he just hasn't really been fitting into these chapters. Next chapter will definitely be focused on Dabi and Hawks. No Shigaraki and Dabi squabbles next chapter. This is a Dabihawks fic dammit, not a Shigadabi one. Damn Shigaraki for being a fun character to write.

That's all for now, until then, fairwinds.

Reviews are always welcome!


	7. Chapter 6

Dabi lies against the cold cement of the rooftop and studies the stars with brooding silence. He can't even begin to wrap his mind around what Shigaraki told him last night. He doesn't even iwant/i to understand what his boss meant by "You stare at him like he's a piece of meat."

He's just doing what he was tasked to do: corrupt the nation's precious and much beloved Number Two Hero and by no means does that mean that Dabi has recently caught feelings for Hawks. Even if he _did_ catch feelings, which he didn't of course; there would be no way that Hawks would even give him the time of day to begin with.

He pushes Hawks out of his mind and instead tries to remember the names of the constellations that his mother had shown him years ago. Dabi stretches out his left hand and pretends that if he reaches far enough, he's able to pluck the stars out from the sky.

"Whatcha doin'?" A friendly face with wild golden hair and an impish grin pops into his view and obscures the stars like an eclipse. Dabi pretends to not notice the fact that Hawks' hair is bathed in a heavenly glow like a halo from the moon above. Instead he settles for a frown and pushes the hero's face away from him. Hawks merely laughs and sits down next to him, looking up towards the stars.

"Never thought you were the type to go star gazing." Dabi can't help but to chuckle and he rolls his eyes.

"Why? Even villains gotta have a hobby."

"Suppose you're right," Hawks says nothing but cocks his head curiously as he continues to gaze upwards, "I've never had the time to learn them."

"Your parents never taught them to you?" Dabi props himself up on his elbows and tries to not stare too intently at the hero.

"Nah, my parents, uh," Hawks pauses and fluffs up his wings before wrapping them around himself, "Weren't exactly there for me as a kid." Dabi hums in reply, an idea pops into his mind, before nudging Hawks' side and points to a cluster of stars.

"See that group that kinda looks like a pot or a giant spoon? That's the Big Dipper. If you follow the stars," His hand connects the stars and then moves from the constellation to point out a brightly shinning star to the north, "They'll show you the North Star. It's a little hard to see but it's part of the Little Dipper too. The other stars just don't shine as bright but they're there." He finishes with a shrug. Hawks nods and flashes him a wide smile that makes Dabi's head rush.

"Which one's your favorite?" Without a pause, he points to three stars neatly lined up.

"This is Orion's Belt, the three stars north of them and the two south make up the rest of him." They continue to stare up at the stars with Dabi pointing out the constellations and Hawks making up constellations as they go, most of his made up constellations consist of just menu items from KFC to Dabi's amusement.

"See that bunch of stars right there? That's the Crispy Colonel Sandwich."

"Oh, really? Sure it isn't Lyra?"

"Pretty sure it's Crispy Colonel Sandwich."

"Whatever you say Hawks." Hawks pays him no mind as he points out another constellation, dubbing it the _Extra Crispy Chicken Tenders Cluster_.

Every minute of it, Dabi fights to quell the thundering of his heart as Hawks occasionally brushes against him with the soft flutter of his vermilion wings.

"Look, I'm not saying that you look like shit buuuut... you look like shit." Dabi gives nothing but a grunt in Hawks' general direction as he fumbles with the coffee machine. Hawks' apartment is too bright, the noises are too loud and worst of all- Dabi feels like his head is tearing apart at his stitching. He clenches his eyes back shut as he flips the brewing button on and tries to ignore the fact that his eyes feel like they're going to burst from their sockets at any given moment.

He doesn't know who he got the flu from but whoever it is, they should be thankful that he hasn't burnt them to a complete crisp.

Dabi does have a sneaking suspicion that he caught it from Spinner though. That over grown lizard is always slinking off to the dirtiest places known to man and Dabi is _sure_ that he heard Spinner complaining of a headache the other day.

He doesn't even really know if Spinner can infect humans, is the flu not discriminatory between different species? Should Dabi go and see a doctor or maybe the vet because he got it from a lizard? He doesn't know. Thinking about it is just giving him a bigger headache.

"You know, you probably shouldn't be drinking any coffee right now. Just saying. You look like you're going to, like- I don't know, throw up and then pass out in the puddle of your own vomit. Which is kinda gross by the way. Maybe I should just kick you out until you look like you _didn't_ crawl out of a dumpster but hey, what am I saying? You always look like you crawled out of a dumpster." Dabi cracks open an eye and grabs a mug that Hawks bought for him as a joke that says _I'm a ray of fucking sunshine_.

"You better shut the fuck up before I cough on you, bird brain." Hawks laughs and shrugs nonchalantly, leaning back in his chair with a grin- waggling his eyebrows at him.

"I'm the Number Two Hero, it'll take a lot more than the flu to take me down."

"Wanna test that logic of yours?" Dabi growls and turns his attention to the beeping coffee machine. All he wants is his morning coffee, a dark room and some peace and quiet. Is that so hard to ask for? Apparently it is for a morning person, Hawks reasoning for it is: "The early bird gets the worm!" Dabi doesn't exactly get that logic, because by all means- he can wander into just about any convenience store and buy a bag of gummy worms at any given hour. Sometimes Hawks spouts out strange Western sayings, that one must be one of them. He probably just Googles "stupid bird sayings to annoy people with". He snorts at his own deductions.

"What's so funny there, scar face?"

"None ya fucking business."

"Whoa, anyone ever tell you that you're an absolute delight to be around?" Dabi flops down on the only other chair at the small kitchen table that's overflowing with letters from Hawks' adoring fans and blearily takes a sip from the coffee before peeking over the mug and to his overly annoying and chipper roommate.

"Every damn day." Both men snort and Hawks finally gives Dabi some peace by getting distracted by his phone. Occasionally a smile flickers on his lips and he taps away, he's most likely on Twitter- tweeting away like a good little bird should.

One day Dabi had offhandedly mentioned that instead of a bright blue bird icon they should just change it to a little picture of Hawks instead- given how often the hero is on the app. Hawks had found it a fantastic idea and within the hour Hawks had set up a petition on a website to do exactly that. The petition itself had gained a mass of supportive fans gathering well up into the thousands but unfortunately, Hawks just hadn't had enough pull with the American company. Hawks had muttered something about "Top Ten Anime Betrayals" before sulking off to his room in defeat.

Dabi wakes up to a silent apartment and pats around the bed for his old flip phone. He finally finds it after a choice string of curses and sees that it's half past four in the evening. Dabi lets out a groan and flops back against the pillow, he definitely did not plan on sleeping nearly the whole day away and knows that Shigaraki is going to rip him a new one the next time he slinks off into the bar.

A problem for another day. He thinks to himself as he slowly gets to his feet and sits at the edge of the bed, massaging his temples.

When he thinks that he should just go back to bed, his phone pings and Dabi debates if he should just ignore it when it pings again. His first message is from Shigaraki, asking- demanding to keep an eye out for Hawks today. Something about how he's been spotted at the hospital Endeavor is holed up at and has been acting weird since he left.

His second text is just from Toga, asking him to stop by the hideout to help her with something. Dabi hopes that it's not to help hide another body.

He finds Hawks perched up on the roof of the apartment building surrounded by empty bottles of beer and he inwardly sighs, a drunk Hawks is the last thing his still half asleep mind needs to deal with. He stops just short of the winged hero and smirks when he sees Hawks throw him a very unfocused glare.

"What're you doing up here?"

Dabi is at a loss of words as he watches Hawks snore on his bed.

An orphan at a young age and then to only be swept off the streets and forced to train as a hero against his own wishes. Dabi can't help but to feel disgusted as he tips back a bottle of lukewarm beer. Just how low will the hero society stoop to fulfill their agenda? He doesn't break his gaze from Hawks and asks himself if the same thing would've happened to him if he hadn't run away from his problems.

As Hawks continues to snore away, Dabi takes out a cigarette and wonders just how happy Hawks truly is with the life that was chosen for him.

Over the years, Dabi has broken more promises than he's kept but he surprises himself when he finds himself promising that he will break Hawks out from his cage.

After all, birds are meant to be free.

* * *

 **Author's Note**


	8. Chapter 7

"Look who the cat dragged in. Here I was starting to think that you forgot all about us." Shigaraki's snide remark draws a few chuckles from some random thugs that Dabi has never met before and he barely pays them any mind, low life villains are just that to him. He has bigger fish to fry today and the new recruits for The League mean nothing to him currently.

"How could I ever forget the biggest banes of my existence?" He shoots back and smirks when Shigaraki rolls his eyes. Kurogiri appears from the back room and gives Dabi an odd fatherly yet stern look. If Dabi is to be honest, he's always taken aback every time that Kurogiri steps up as a father role model for their rag tag group of villains. Yet, he supposes- someone has to take that responsibility. He just thanks the heavens that Twice isn't their designated father role model, he could only imagine the ensuing chaos.

He enjoys hanging out with Twice as a drinking buddy, but having the man hover over him like a mother hen would be something that Dabi would really rather not have to deal with in his life.

"You're late again, Dabi." Dabi takes his usual seat next to his boss and plucks the glass from Kurogiri's misty grasp and opens up a small flask hiding in his jacket pocket, he ignores the irritated huff from Kurogiri and pours the amber liquid into the glass.

"I was a bit busy dying," He knocks back the drink, Dabi does still feel the lingering effects of the flu but a plugged up nose can't get in the way when there's evil doing to be done. He'll just have to settle with sounding nasally for the time being, sick leave isn't exactly an option for his line of profession. "Speaking of dying, anyone see Spinner? I gotta have a little chat with the overgrown lizard."

"I'm not a damn babysitter for all of you. You can find him yourself."

"Well damn, someone get up on the wrong side of bed this morning?" He smiles over the rim of his glass when he spies Shigaraki's hand itching up towards his neck.

"To my knowledge," Kurogiri interjects before Shigaraki says anything that'll start a spat between the two villains, "You sent him on a mission out of town yesterday, Shigaraki." He allows a pause before smugly adding, "In addition to my knowledge, I believe that you haven't even gone to bed yet." Dabi tuts and shakes his head.  
"Didn't anyone tell you that staying up all night playing video games is bad for your health?" Shigaraki's ruby eyes narrow at him and his hand drops back down to the counter, fiddling with Father.

"Like _you're_ the epitome of perfect health?"

"Hey, I never said that I follow my own advice. That shit's for nerds. I got a reputation to keep up here," He waves off Shigaraki before he can say anything else, "Anyway, I'm not here to discuss my health with you losers. Is Toga here? She wanted to see me."

"Once again, not a babysitter."

"She's in her room." Both Shigaraki and Kurogiri say at the same time, Dabi merely nods and stands up.

"Deuces, creep. Kurogiri."

"Fuck you Freddy Krueger."

"Still an overgrown man child I see." He ducks into the doorway as a glass is hurled past his head and against the wall, Dabi laughs as Kurogiri starts to lecture Shigaraki about property damage and makes his way to Toga's room.

There's just something so... cutesy about Toga's room that makes Dabi want to scratch his head in confusion. Maybe because he just never really put much thought into what a knife wielding yandere with a taste for blood would actually be into besides having a lifetime membership for Hot Topic.

Instead, Dabi finds himself face to face with an overly stuffed Hello Kitty plushie that nearly takes up her entire twin sized bed. He shifts uncomfortably on his feet as plastered pictures of a very strange mixture of Pusheen and Stain stare back at him from the pastel pink walls.

Still, he can't mask the disappointment of not having a fellow edgelord to bond with. Dabi supposes that there's always Shigaraki but, Shigaraki is so... iShigaraki/i and Dabi would really rather not open that box. Besides, Dabi thinks, there's only so much one can tolerate with the ratty little gremlin.

Toga bounces up from her vanity mirror and greets him with a giant smile.

"Dabi! Hi!" She bounces on the heels of her feet and her ochre cat eyes gleam with excitement. He can't help but to narrow his eyes at her and stares around the room with suspicion.

"I don't see any bodies that need to be taken care of. What do you want?" Toga starts to pout.

"Why would I need you to help me get rid of a body?"

"Maybe because you're a serial killer?" She stomps down a foot and points a finger at him.  
" _You're_ a serial killer too! Do I see you being accused of having dead bodies to hide?"

"Uh, no?" Toga smiles again and takes Dabi by the sleeve of his sweater, leading him to the vanity.

"Exactly!" He allows himself to be pulled along and when she plops back down in front of the mirror, he raises an eyebrow, "'Sides, I don't need any help in hiding bodies!"

"Okay, so why am I here?" Dabi's confusion only grows when he spies a dusting of blush on her cheeks and she fiddles with the hem of her over-sized sweater.

"Promise me you won't laugh!"

"Alright, alright. I won't laugh." Toga nods slightly and doesn't say anything for a moment, leaving them nothing but in silence of her pink room and the seemingly judging stares of a cartoon cat.

"I was wondering if you could help me with my hair?" Dabi stares back at her reflection incredulously.

"What?"

"I just- well, never really learned how to do my hair."

"Why do you want to learn now?" To be honest, Dabi just always thought that Toga just liked to style her hair in her signature messy twin bun style. Now, he's starting to feel bad that she just never had the opportunity to learn how to do hair.

"Shiggy was making fun of my hair. Called it a rat's nest." She mumbles, refusing to meet his gaze. Dabi crosses his arms and leans his weight onto his left foot, making a note to himself to give Shigaraki some extra shit later today.

"Why me?"

"I-" Toga pauses again, "I, I just see you like the brother I've never had, okay?!" If Dabi possessed less control over his emotions, he's sure that he would've started crying. Instead, he ignores the painful stutter in his heart. He pushes down the surfacing memories of his past back down- wanting to avoid taking a trip down memory lane.

Even with suppressing everything, being called a brother nearly breaks his heart.

A word that he's nearly forgotten about.

He allows a gentle smile and picks up the hairbrush that's next to her.

"I only really know how to braid."

"That's fine!" Toga perks up and takes out her hair ties, letting her blonde hair fall down past her shoulders. As he begins to brush through her hair, Dabi finds himself missing his sister and adding to his surprise- wondering how his siblings are doing.

"Dabi?" She draws him away from his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"You seem different lately. Why's that?" She starts to smile and Dabi tenses.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Please," Toga rolls her eyes, "You can't pretend that I'm stupid."

"I never said that you were stupid."

"Then spill the beans." He's halfway through her braid and begins to twine her hair faster to escape their conversation.

"I'd rather keep my beans... not spilled." She narrows her eyes at Dabi through the reflection of the mirror before shrugging.

"Fine, keep your secrets." Dabi internally breathes a sigh of relief, "I know you're in love anyway." Dabi involuntarily jerks back, Toga lets out a yelp of pain and rubs her head.

"What did you just say?"

"Dabi, Dabi, Dabi. What are we going to do with you?" She giggles- inspecting her nearly complete braid. Dabi makes his way back towards her door and she looks up startled.

"Wait- where are you going?"

"I got better shit to do than to sit around braiding hair all day, kid."

"I'm not a kid!" Dabi takes a final look around her room and turns back to her.

"You sure about that? All these Hello Kitty and Pusheen merchandise begs to differ."

"Shut up! They're cute!" She blusters, "Why do you gotta be such a dick?" He shoots her a peace sign and closes the door behind him.

Dabi nearly wants to laugh. In love? _Him_? Just the thought of it is ridiculous. His heart is way to shriveled to be capable of ever loving. At least that's what he tells himself as he studies his reflection in the mirror.

Since his involuntarily move in with Hawks, he's gained some weight and no longer looks like a walking corpse. He can still see the slight jutting of his ribs when he gets ready in the mornings but can no longer count each rib anymore. He's also noticed that he's no longer deathly pale, Dabi supposes that actually getting a decent amount of sleep and three square meals a day can do wonders. He pulls the collar of his black turtle neck over his chin and glares- his reflection's turquoise eyes glare back at him.

"They're all just losing their damn minds." Dabi mumbles as he fixes his hair, "As if iI/i could love anyone." He rolls back his shoulders and sighs. If he isn't in love, why is he even standing in front of Hawks' body mirror making sure he looks as nice as he can? A small part of his mind asks.

"Maybe I'm losing my damn mind." Is all he can offer to the lanky reflection staring back at him. Of course his reflection gives him no insight, just the sight of him biting his own scarred lip.

"I mean, come on. I'm one of the most wanted and feared villains in Japan. People like me can't love." Dabi brings up a palm and rests it against the cold surface of the mirror, "I can't afford to love." For the second time that day, Dabi finds himself thinking about Fuyumi. He knows that she would know exactly what to say in a situation like this.

"I don't have time for this bullshit." Dabi growls, pulling his face mask up and turns away from his reflection and heads out the door.

Of course Hawks wouldn't be alone, Dabi thinks bitterly. He strums his slender fingers against his thigh impatiently and watches as Hawks blushes at something that Miruko tells him. He feels a frown tugging down and he brings out his phone. If he's forced to sit outside in the cold, Hawks might as well get him something from his little lunch date.

When he sees Hawks reach for his phone, Dabi stands up and blends in with the rush of the walking crowd- not wanting to watch the two heroes any longer.

As he steps into sync with the rest of the crowd, he can't help but to feel a foreign tug at his heart. Dabi sighs and reaches for a cigarette.

He finds himself tuning out Hawks' chatter, Dabi still can't move on from what Hawks said earlier about Miruko being his partner. He has no idea on what kind of partner Hawks meant by that and if he has to be honest with himself, he's tempted to do some researching into the dual's past.

"Hello? Ground control to Major Dabi. Do you copy?" Dabi glances down at Hawks and is greeted by the hero's signature lazy smile. He's thankful for two things currently. One, for his face mask to hide the heat that he feels creeping along his cheeks and two, for his phone going off so he can focus on his phone rather than finding himself drowning in the blond's beauty.

"Pick up the pace, little hero. We're wanted at the bar." Dabi offers nothing more as he strolls ahead of Hawks, ignoring his inquiries and leads them into a dingy alleyway where a swirling vortex appears.

"After you." Dabi gestures to the portal and watches closely as Hawks takes in a deep breath and steps through the portal.

Dabi personally isn't a big fan of Kurogiri's way of transportation, he always finds himself getting motion sickness from them. He puts up with it because it's better than the other way of getting around through Ujiko's quirk. He'd really rather not be spouting out viscous black sludge that leaves the worst taste for days after.

All Dabi wants in life is just to have one day where he doesn't have to be the butt of everyone's teasing. If he was in a bad mood earlier, now he's just downright murderous. He stalks out of the hideout and curses Toga and Twice for having the mindset of a couple of grade school children.

Not only had they teased Hawks about Miruko but then turned on him when they noticed his bad mood. Then, if it couldn't get any worse, Toga had to go and spout off that Dabi's in love. If they think that he didn't hear that part, well, they have another thing coming.

To his surprise, he finds himself standing in front of the hospital his mom currently resides and what surprises him even more is that he catches himself wishing for the first time in a very long time that he could be comforted by his mother.

He's tempted to go in. Breaking in shouldn't be too hard for a top tier villain like himself but it would only rip open old scars.

"We left our families behind for a reason." He repeats Shigaraki's word of advice before walking past the hospital.

He knows his place in the world and the comfort of his long lost family is something that he doesn't deserve.

Even still, he yearns for the solace of their warm love as he finds himself growing more and more confused in what he actually wants in life.


	9. Chapter 8

Another crisp and clear night finds Dabi sitting on the edge of the apartment building, staring at nothing in particular. His eyes shift slowly from the blinking traffic lights to the occasional flicker of neon signs of downtown bars. He dangles his legs over the building and hums gently to himself while his fingers fiddle with a shiny five yen coin, the golden gleam catches his eyes and he stops humming for a moment. He hears a distant car alarm go off and he watches the coin reflect off the rooftop light, it seems to glow under the light and it reminds him of a certain winged hero. He frowns and pockets the coin- returning his attention back to the busy night time bustle of downtown Musutafu.

A cold breeze bites through his thin hoodie and he exhales, focusing on the small and flickering azure flame that he summoned earlier for warmth. Dabi doesn't want to go down into the apartment quite yet and face Hawks, all day he's been walking around with a strange sinking feeling in his chest. Whenever he thinks about Hawks, the feeling twists tightly around his heart and it's starting to frustrate him.

Dabi likes to think of himself as a carpe diem kind of guy, a "take what I want, when I want" guy. Sure, he thinks things out but once he has his eyes and mind set on something, usually nothing can stop him.

Except this.

He doesn't know what to do in this situation and he's getting pissed. Sure, Dabi's had his fair share of one night stands but those were exactly that, nothing more than a night of grasping at the sheets and content sighs. Once the sun rises and the bed is empty, nothing is left but the memory of what happened in the dark of some sleazy hotel room. There were no feelings in that, nothing but a frenzied and often drunken need to avoid feeling alone.

Hawks is a different matter though.

"What am I even thinking?" Dabi groans and runs a hand through his hair, "There's not even anything between us! Why am I so fucking hung up on some shitty Big Bird wannabe hero?" He glowers up at the stars, a small part of him hopes that they would answer his question. Of course all he gets back is silence and he sighs dejectedly. Slowly standing up, he peers over the edge of the building and a tall and very familiar figure strutting up to the apartment complex.

He can't deny the temptation of hurling a fire ball at Miruko but instead he turns away and heads down the fire escape.

"It's better this way," Dabi mumbles as he draws the hood over his head, "I don't deserve a hero." Dabi descends the iron fire escape and tries to bury the feeling of a breaking heart.


	10. Chapter 9

"What're you doing here?" Toga pokes Dabi's side, stirring him from his nap. He throws her a glare and bats her hand away before turning away.

"Go away." He hears a giggle and she moves his legs so she can sit next to him on the sofa.

"Why would I wanna go away when I can sit here and bug you?" Well, at least she knows she's the next Dennis the Menace, Dabi thinks before glaring at her from over his shoulder again.

"Give me a good reason why I shouldn't incinerate you."

"Because this is a friendly fire free zone, idiot. If it wasn't, I would've killed you all earlier." A bored voice rings from behind the back of the sofa and Dabi presses his face further into the pillow, wishing everyone would just vanish.

"But Shiggy, you _did_ try to kill us!"

"That's one of my biggest regrets in life."

"That you tried to kill us?" Toga's questions and Dabi cracks open an eye to see Shigaraki leaning against the back of the sofa, studying him and Toga.

"No. That I _didn't_ kill you." Dabi gives Shigaraki the bird and sits up.

"Shut up, Shigaraki." His red eyes narrow before leaning in closer.

"Don't tell me what to do. Why are you even here?" Dabi crosses his arms and doesn't balk away from Shigaraki.

"I'm an adult. I can do what I want."

"Then fuck off. I give you a mission because you always bitch about being stuck here but instead of actually doing your damn job, here you are. In _my_ bar. Breathing _my_ air. Wasting _my_ time!"

"Oh, look how high and mighty you are! What do you even do besides playing video games all day? Get a life, creep."

"Dabi, I swear-"

"Please! Stop fighting! Can't you see you're tearing this family apart?!" Twice bursts in, his arms waving as he makes his way to a very entertained Toga.

"Shut up, Twice." Both Dabi and Shigaraki shout back before they return to glowering at each other.

"Shigaraki. Dabi." Kurogiri appears a moment after Twice and his misty yellow eyes are trained on the two, arms crossed and Dabi can feel his disappointment rolling off in waves. He sighs and picks himself up from the sofa and slinks off towards the front door.

"Whatever. I needed a smoke anyway."

"Dabi." He groans and turns back towards the voice, snuffing the cigarette against the brick wall and letting it fall from his fingers. Toga is bundled up in a warm jacket and the worried look she's wearing seems nearly foreign on her. She shuffles closer to him, waiting to see if he'll start arguing with her too. Instead he just leans against the wall and watches her with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you want?" He asks, Dabi leaves out the venom in his question. His beef isn't with Toga, he supposes it isn't with Shigaraki either but he can't help that his boss is always itching for an argument.

"You've been acting really weird these past few days!" He snorts and rolls his eyes.

"Thanks captain obvious." Toga puffs out her cheeks in annoyance.

"What's wrong Dabs?" Dabi appreciates her jumping straight to the point, he's never been the type to beat around the bush. His motto in life is: Why bother beating around the bush, when you can burn it down?

"Why would I wanna tell you what's wrong?" She pokes him in the side again and sighs dramatically while rolling her eyes.

"Because I'm your designated little sister! You have to tell me!" Can't argue with that logic, Dabi thinks wryly. He doesn't say anything for a moment and just studies Toga before running a hand over his face.

"Fuck. Shit. You're right. I've been a pretty shitty brother, huh?" He's not quite sure if he meant it towards Toga or for his blood siblings. He supposes it doesn't matter in the end because either way, he's been shitty to all of them.

"It's okay!" Her look of concern melts off and in its place is the usual beaming Toga, "That's what I'm here for! Someone has to keep you in line!" Dabi can't help but to chuckle and nods.

"Guess you were the one that drew the short straw then," Toga rolls her eyes, "C'mon, kid. Let's get you inside. You look like you're a minute away from turning into a human popsicle."

"I'm not a kid!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say kid." He waves her annoyed huffs off and holds open the front door for her, "Get in before you freeze."

Dabi finds himself back in Toga's room, she leads him to a velvet looking bean bag chair and he sinks in. Dabi doubts he's going to be able to get back out of the chair and he asks himself if he's ready to just die and become part of her room décor. He decides that he's ready. At least he won't have to deal with his problems anymore.

"Here." Toga hands him a fuzzy lavender pillow and Dabi hugs it to himself, studying the white swirl pattern on the pillow. She allows him some time to gather his thoughts, Toga is perched on the chair in front of her vanity and she takes out her buns, attempting to braid her hair instead.

"It all started," Dabi pauses and Toga glances at him through the mirror, "When I was born." Dabi ducks in time to avoid being hit in the forehead with a hairbrush.

"Dabi!" He tosses the hairbrush back with a chuckle.

"Okay, okay. Damn." He falls silent again and asks himself when on earth had he allowed him to get so soft? Last year, he would've laughed in Toga's face and told her to fuck off if she offered to lend her shoulder for him. Last year, he probably wouldn't even have this problem to begin with.

In that heartbeat of silence, the levee finally breaks and he finds himself telling Toga everything. From how lame he initially thought Hawks was and then to how he can't even go a day without thinking about the hero now. He tells her about his insecurities and jealousies and how he can't stand to see Hawks around Miruko. Halfway through telling Toga everything, he just starts to laugh. Dabi realizes how pathetic he must sound, talking to Toga of all people about his problems and fears. Through all of this though, she doesn't laugh or roll her eyes. Instead, she nods attentively to his rant.

"Just, why?" He finishes, glaring a hole into the pillow on his lap. A shuffle of fabric catches his attention and he looks up to see Toga now sitting opposite of him on her bed, her braid is sloppy but he can't help but to feel a swell of pride for her. He nearly wants to laugh at the sight of her though, she just looks so tiny compared to the behemoth of the Hello Kitty plushie she's sitting next to.

"What do you mean why?"

"Why _him_?" Dabi gestures vaguely with a disgruntled noise. Toga tucks her legs underneath her and cocks her head to the side, tapping her chin with a finger.

"Love works in mysterious ways."

"Fuck love." Is all that he can offer and she narrows her eyes at him for a second before shaking her head.

"Dabi. Shut up. Honestly, you have to be blind to _not_ notice that he likes you back."

"Bullshit. He's with that Miruko bitch." Her eyebrows shoot up and disappear into her bangs and she giggles.

"Jealous much?" Dabi can feel his face start to heat up and debates if it would be better if he would just set himself on fire to avoid having this conversation with this self proclaimed sister of his, "Besides, you're a pretty shit villain."

"Excuse me?"

"Dabi, part of being a villain is to know about heroes. If you knew anything about Miruko, you'd know that she isn't interested in guys." She replies easily, Dabi studies her smiling face- searching for any sort of hint that she might be lying but ultimately finds nothing. Before he has a chance to reply, Toga starts to giggle again- hiding her smile behind a hand.

"What are you laughing at now?"

"It's just funny that," Toga smiles and Dabi waits with narrowed eyes, "You're like the Grinch! First you had an old gross and shriveled heart. Now it's like it grew three times its size since you moved in with Hawks!" Her giggles turn into a full on laughter and Dabi feels an oncoming migraine.

"Toga, I'm giving you exactly five seconds for you to shut the fuck up."

Dabi paces in front of the apartment complex, occasionally sending a glare up to the windows of Hawks' apartment. It's still early enough in the morning where he can feel secure enough to stroll around outside without disguising his disfigurement too much. He hasn't seen a soul since the random villain and homeless man sharing a conversation around a flaming garbage can when he left The League's headquarters.

He thinks back to what Toga told him about that Hawks likes him back. Dabi ducks his face into the collar of his shirt and sighs, his own breath hot against his winter chilled skin.

"Fuck it." He mutters and takes a step towards the giant glass doors of the building.

The apartment is dark but he can't miss the crimson wings peeking out from under the mess of blankets on Hawks' bed. A blanket falls away and Hawks sits up, his hair catching the dim light of the apartment and reminds Dabi of a rising sun with its golden glow.

Neither man says anything and Dabi opts to sit down on the sofa, spying some remnants of grease splatter.

Their silence is soon broken and they start to bicker back and forth. Hawks is confused about where Dabi went and Dabi finds his jealousy flaring up again when he brings up Miruko. Before he knows it, Hawks is standing over him and looks like he wants to fly himself off into the sun. Dabi can't blame him, their spat is making him want to crawl back to the headquarters and get drunk off of Kurogiri's best booze and forget this whole thing. Instead, they scowl at each other. Hawks' magnificent wings flutter every once in a while and Dabi's hand itches to an empty and crumpled up cigarette pack.

"You're acting all weird!" Dabi can feel his headache coming back and he rubs his temples tiredly.

"I should've stayed outside. Jesus, this is so stupid." If this was just one of their normal little arguments, Dabi would be proud to see that Hawks looks like he just about wants to throw down. Instead, he just feels worse.

"Why would you even stay outside?" At this point, Dabi just wants to start screaming out of frustration. Their whole argument is nothing but them running around in circles and he's starting to get dizzy.

"You must really have a bird brain huh? You had her over here! In case you forgot because apparently your brain is the size of a damn pea, she's a hero. I'm a i _villain/i_ it would either end with her trying to arrest me, or me trying to kill her. Most likely both. Besides," His eyes dart up to Hawks' golden eyes for a second before looking back down to his hands in his lap, "Besides, I... didn't want to see you with her."

"What do you mean see her with m-" Confusion clouds over Hawks' face for a moment before it goes slack. Dabi's heart sinks as he nearly sees the gears working overtime in Hawks' head. He has to leave the apartment now before he says anything else. He abruptly stands up, Hawks takes a surprised step back, coming back from whatever thoughts he was lost in.

"I gotta go. I have a lot of work that Shigaraki wants me to do." Dabi tries to make his way back to the front door but a soft tug at his arm brings him to a halt. Dabi's heart is thundering in his ears and he glares over his shoulder at Hawks.

"Hawks-" Time seems to slow as he watches Hawks reach out his other hand and takes Dabi's. He nearly forgets to breathe as he looks down and sees his scarred hand automatically interlocking with Hawks' own smooth hand. Dabi's eyes follow up Hawks' arm and they say nothing as their gaze meets.

"Oh my god, we're such idiots." Hawks nervously chuckles and Dabi feels a million emotions running through his mind as he watches Hawks slowly lean forward. He's drowning in Hawks' liquid gold eyes and for a second, Dabi thinks that he wouldn't mind staying in this moment forever. That he would be perfectly fine to be lost this man's lopsided smile, witty quips and his gorgeous carmine wings.

His thoughts come to a screeching halt when Hawks closes the short distance between them and places a ghost of a kiss on his own lips. Dabi loses all control of his arms as they snake around Hawks' hips and he deepens the kiss.

Both men get lost in the moment as they allow each other's hands to roam. Dabi can no longer take it, his heart feels like it's about to explode.

"God, I need you." He murmurs into the crook of Hawks' soft neck and begins to back Hawks up towards the bed. Dabi can't hide his smile anymore as he gently pushes Hawks down into the mattress but he spies Hawks wearing a smile of his own before Hawks encases the both of them in his wings as clothes are discarded and quickly forgotten about on the floor.

Dabi studies the sleeping figure of Hawks as he runs his hands through his downy soft feathers. Hawks makes a soft noise and snuggles closer to Dabi, nuzzling into Dabi's neck. After Hawks stops shifting around, Dabi smiles down at him.

All his life, he's known the harsh bite of fire and the agonizing burns that follow. He's grown used to its devastating heat.

However.

The warmth he feels now for Hawks is entirely foreign to him. It's soft and instead of the cold blue that he's grown accustomed to, this new warmth comes in a striking shade of vibrant red that refuses to extinguish.

He supposes that this is what love really feels like and Dabi tells himself that he's never going to let go of it.


	11. Chapter 10

Dabi could say that these past few weeks have been some of the best that he's had in a very long time. Who couldn't turn down living in a nice, yet modest, rent free apartment that's always stocked to the nines with food, free internet, easy access to the rooftop and with just a simple click on a remote, he has countless movies and shows to choose from on both Hulu iand/i Netflix?

Who even has subscriptions for both streaming sites? Certainly not Dabi, he had perused those shady pirate streaming sites that typically ended with him staring sadly at his computer who stared back with the infamous blue screen of death.

Then, there's also Hawks. If Dabi is to be honest with himself, he still can't believe that Hawks willingly decided to be with him. The hero could have anyone, but settled with Dabi? Oftentimes, he finds himself lost in thought, wondering if maybe this is all just a dream.

Even if all of this is just a dream, Dabi is happy.

Sometimes, he still laughs when he's alone- just the thought of the great Number Two Hero, one of Japan's much beloved heroes, banging him. A villain. A villain that's second in command in The League of Villains. The irony isn't lost on him, and he can't help but to feel smug every time he's staring at the hero pinned beneath him on the mattress.

What really makes Dabi want to laugh is when he went to visit Hawks in his agency last week and was surprised with a visit from Endeavor. Hearing his father wanting to track him down and kill him was amusing to say the least. Dabi had to fight down the urge to spring up from under Hawks' desk yelling "Surprise, motherfucker!" before igniting the room up and escaping vis-à-vis Tuxedo Mask style.

Unfortunately, he made a promise to Hawks to _not_ do exactly that. Shame really, he would kill to see the look on Endeavor's face if he had done that. Perhaps another opportunity will pop up.

One can only hope.

Nonetheless, It's safe to say that Dabi hasn't been in this good of a mood since the day that he told Endeavor to go choke on a dick.

The League has definitely caught on to Dabi's shift of moods and they all don't miss the chance to tease him about it. Even Shigaraki can't ruin his day. In fact, it just makes him even happier to see the frustrated scowl on his boss's face when he can't get under Dabi's skin anymore.

There is one thing that does put a damper on his good mood though.

Dabi sighs and stares at his black backpack that's sitting next to the front door of the apartment. He tells himself that he'll only be gone for a week, but that still doesn't stop the painful clench in his heart. Hawks had already left for the day and he's left alone in the quiet apartment, Dabi looks down at his lap and smiles at the small plushie of Hawks.

He still can't believe that Hawks thinks that releasing plushies of himself to his line is a good idea. Well, he supposes that stores _have_ been sold out on his new merchandise but that doesn't stop Dabi from thinking that it's still ridiculous.

He still appreciates the gift though and gently tucks it into his jacket pocket before standing up and looking around the apartment. He's going to miss the apartment and the comfort it brings, he knows that he'll be holed up in some dingy motel room where his roommates for the week will likely either be a family of rats or a good old swarm of roaches that scuttle around in the dark.

He hopes it isn't the roaches.

Dabi shoulders his backpack and with a final look around the apartment, closes the door and heads out before the sunrise.

After a nearly three hour drive, Dabi is exhausted. His body is sore from sitting too long and the minute he steps out of a car that he stole, he nearly buckles. Clamping a hand on the roof of the car, he stomps down his foot a few times to wake it up and he curses. Next time, he vows to make Kurogiri open a portal for him.

Dabi takes a look around and isn't too impressed. He knows that he's not here on vacation, but he also knows that The League can afford something at least a little better than a run down motel that frankly looks like it belongs in some sort of horror movie.

As he stalks up to the front door, Dabi chuckles and shakes his head.

"No wonder why this shit looks abandoned. Fucking cheapasses." He ignores the Condemned sign and takes down the caution tape. Dabi nearly has to break the door in, but it eventually creaks open and he sneezes as a cloud of dust floats out to greet him.

Squinting against the dim light, Dabi presses his nose against the crook of his elbow and snakes into what used to be the lobby. He mindfully steps over a gaping hole in the wooden floor and walks past the rotting front desk. Dabi has to remind himself that he's a villain and not a hero, he doesn't get to be pampered in a fancy five star hotel. Not that it matters, but he wryly thinks that he'll be leaving a particularly strong worded review on Yelp after his mission is done.

Dabi's footsteps echo down the empty hallway and he can't help but to feel the heebie-jeebies, the back of his neck prickles and the feeling of being watched makes him feel on edge. He wills his fire to appear and he looks around before going through each of the doors in the hallway. He's thankful that it's a small motel and only has ten rooms. All of which are empty, to his relief.

Dabi takes up residence in the only room that has no broken windows and gets set up, going over his itinerary. Should be easy enough. He was chosen for this mission for two things. One, scope out the bad parts of town and start recruiting. Two, track down a pesky hero that's shoved her nose too far into The League's business. He knows that Shigaraki has had her in his sights for a while now but it seems that she's been sent here on a mission of her own. Shigaraki decided that it's the perfect time for them to strike to not draw attention to themselves. He idly wonders if this hero knows Hawks. Dabi decides to push that thought down, not wanting to know the answer.

He takes his time tracking the hero and instead focuses on recruiting the local street urchins. Many are petty criminals just looking for an outlet to leave their shit hometown. Soon after Dabi finds them, most of them quickly offer unwavering loyalty to Shigaraki and The League before heading to their new life. Dabi wonders to himself just how many of them are actually going to pass Shigaraki's tests. That's not his problem though, he's just here to be the mouthpiece for The League.

He's leaning against the wall of a convenience store smoking a cigarette when a shadow in the corner of his eye catches his attention.

"Do you know how long it took for me to find you?" A woman who looks to be no older than twenty stands at the edge of the flickering streetlamp's light and he strains to see her properly. He nearly wants to laugh, Dabi has to give the hero credit though. She's either brazen enough to be confident in her own quirk- or she's just plain stupid. For the time being, he decides to play her little game. He pushes off of the wall and flicks his cigarette to the side.

"Well, I can't do all the work, now can I? Gotta leave some of the fun for you." He takes another step forward and enters the dim circle of light from the street lamp. His keen eyes don't miss the scared expression she's trying so hard to mask. Dabi really has to hand it to the Hero Commission for stooping so low to send someone who looks fresh out of school. He slouches forward and tilts his head to the side- knowing full well how the light casts an ominous shadow over his face.

"So tell me, little heroine, how exactly do you plan on taking a big bad villain like me down?" Dabi sneers down at her, he'd really rather not fight someone who looks barely older than Shouto but if push comes to shove- he'll know who will be the one to walk away alive.

It won't be her either.

"I'll do what it takes to bring you to justice!" Dabi rolls his eyes and shakes his head tauntingly at her.

"Oh to be young and delusional again. Tell you what, you caught me in a good mood tonight. Why not scamper off and I'll forget that I ever saw you here." He watches as her eyes widen before she crosses her arms.

"Like I would let garbage like you escape?!" She raises her fists in a fighting position and he sighs.

"Kid, I eat low ranking heroes for breakfast. Don't start what you can't finish." He watches as her fists glows with a red energy and Dabi cracks his neck, "Alright, don't say that I didn't warn you." He raises his own hand and pushes it forward, summoning a ten foot wall of raging blue fire.

Dabi squats down and studies the destroyed buildings around him, some of his fire is still burning on the now dilapidated buildings and he lights a cigarette- listening to the distant shrill sirens getting closer. He takes a moment to stare down at the charred corpse of the heroine next to him and he shakes his head.

"Told you, didn't I?" The only answer he gets is the quiet sobbing of a man lost somewhere in the wreckage and the approaching sirens. Dabi slowly stands up and walks away from the burning ruins of his fight. His left hand is still smoking and it aches, he supposes that he might've gone a little overboard. His scars pull tight against his staples. Every time he overexerts his quirk, he always walks away with his skin pulled taut- making him look like a grimacing mock-up of his victims.

Dabi really isn't in the mood to drive for three hours back home but he's desperate for an actual clean shower and the comforting embrace of Hawks. Those are the two thoughts that keep him going as he climbs into a car and starts it up, he ignores the aching of his burns and focuses on Hawks.


	12. Chapter 11

Dabi wakes up to a flutter of wings and he pushes his head under the pillow to avoid getting a mouthful of feathers.

"Dabi." He shifts away from the prying hand that's trying to shake him awake.

"Mmmpf. Too early." Dabi wraps the fluffy comforter closer to himself and starts to drift off again before he's roughly shaken awake.

"Dammit Dabi, wake the fuck up." He glowers from under the pillow and is met with an equally furious glare from Hawks.

"Lemme sleep. I was up 'til five in the morning because isomebody/i wanted to go to Denny's at three in the damn morning." He bats away Hawks' hand and rolls onto his side, turning his back to Hawks. Dabi is allowed a heartbeat of silence before he hears a sigh and he feels the bed shift slightly before the comforter is yanked away from him. Dabi finally sits up and sees the comforter being folded away by a few of Hawks' feathers as the hero stands over the bed, still glaring at him with his arms crossed.

"You didn't happen to be in Hosu all last week, right Dabi? Please tell me you were up in Kyushu or over in Kyoto? Please." Dabi curiously arches an eyebrow and rubs the sleep from his eyes.  
"Whazzit to ya?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I was thinking about taking a nice little vacation out of Musutafu and wanted you to tell me the details of either of those cities." Dabi pauses and peers up at Hawks, his eyebrows knit together with confusion.

"Wait- aren't you from Kyushu?"

"Oh, I _sure_ am!" Hawks uncrosses his arms and digs out his phone, "I suppose that it has to do with this then!" He hisses before tossing it to the bed, it bounces off of Dabi's leg and lands face down. Dabi shoots Hawks another look of befuddlement and quietly picks up the phone. His screen shows some news website and the headline catches his eye.

 **New and Upcoming Heroine, Brisk, Found Among the Carnage of Hosu. Is This The Work of the Infamous League of Villains?**

Akise Aru

Japan Today

 _Yesterday at 4:00 PM, massive tremors were reported all around the east side of Hosu. Many witnesses also said that a massive blue fire was spotted during the time of the tremors, could this be from the same villainous quirk user who was present during Yuuei's summer training camp that led up to the kidnapping of first year Bakugou Katsuki? Lead Detective Nishijima Masumi seems to believe so: "We've run through the records of fire quirk users and no one is registered for having this specific quirk. The odds of two people, two villains, having the same quirk? Chances are slim to none. I promise that we are working to get to the bottom of this case, we won't let another tragedy like this happen." Nishijima said._

 _First responders arrived promptly at 4:13 PM, unfortunately the attacker had disappeared. Leaving only chaos and death in their wake. Hosu's Chief of Police, Yagami Soichiro, was among the first to arrive. "Drastic measures have been taken to prevent another act of terrorism." He was quoted. When asked how Hosu's police force is taking action, after not only this but also after the devastating attack on Hosu earlier this year, Chief of Police Yagami declined any further statements._

 _This attack has left 5 critically wounded and 3 deceased. Pro hero Brisk, Sasaki Akane, is among the deceased. After graduating from Shiketsu just last year, the heroine was steadily rising within the hero ranks. She was known for her great sense of humor and was always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in need. She was just 2 weeks short from her 20th birthday. Her immediate family has refused any statements at this time. 30 year old Ito Yuuto and his wife Ito Hana, 27, have also passed away. Their 3 year old son, Haruto, is critically wounded and is in intensive care.-_

Dabi looks up from the phone and clears his throat.

"I mean-" Hawks throws up his hands and walks away, Dabi watches as Hawks stalks over to the kitchen. He gets out of bed and he leans against the small dining table once Hawks starts to slam around the dishes.

"Unbelievable, Dabi. Just unbelievable." A red feather whisks past his face and comes back with Hawks' phone.

"What do you expect? I'm a villain, Hawks. Did you honestly think that I was going there to go skipping through the fields and put flower crowns in my hair?" A glare from Hawks quiets down Dabi.

"I don't expect that, but really? She was just a kid! Not even twenty yet. Jesus, and the family? You really wanna have a toddler's death hanging over your head for the rest of your life?" Dabi groans and runs a hand down his face.

"Look, she was looking for a fight okay? I gave her the option to walk away. If I hadn't fought back, I'd be currently rotting in Tartarus. It was either her life or mine, in the end, I chose mine." He sees Hawks' shoulders slump and for the first time, Dabi finds himself unsure of what to do next. He starts to pick at one of the staples in his wrist as he waits for what he can only assume is the end of what they have.

"I know you're not a bad guy, Dabi." He nearly rips the staple out of his skin out of surprise. They've been sitting in silence so long with both men lost in thought, Dabi just about forgot that Hawks was even in the same room as him. Dabi frowns down at the prick of blood forming around the entry points of his staple and wipes the blood off on his boxers.

"You do know that you're sleeping with a serial killer right? As in, I was a killer even before I killed that hero."

"Yeah but, you killed low level villains and abusers." Hawks retaliates. Dabi snorts and rolls his eyes, stretching his arms above his head.

"In the end, I'm still a murderer little bird." Dabi nearly feels bad seeing Hawks' shoulder slump even more as his wings occasionally flutter nervously, "I'll give you some time to think. It seems you have a lot on your mind." He begins to pull on a pair of black pants and a black hoodie over a loose grey shirt. Dabi pockets a pack of cigarettes and his phone before pulling his face mask up. Hawks never moves from his spot in the kitchen and as Dabi reaches for the front door, he pauses and glances at him from over his shoulder.

"Just remember Hawks, this is the life of a villain. Death happens but at least we own up to that, unlike heroes. Either you live life blinded by a beautiful lie or wake up and face the ugly truth." He gently shuts the door behind him and heads down the quiet hallway, putting in his headphones.

As he walks past a building, his walking reflection in the windows catch his attention and Dabi briefly pauses. His reflection mirrors him as he runs his hand through his hair, his roots are blatantly obvious and he frowns at the peeking cherry red of his roots. He supposes that he'll have to pick up a box of dye at a convenience store.

Dabi cautiously goes through the front doors of a large convenience store, looking for anyone that might be tailing him. After satisfied with finding no one following him, he roams up and down the aisles looking for dye. He finally finds a box of cheap hair dye and tosses it into his basket with a click of his tongue.

Dabi stands in line to check out when two women standing in front of the newspaper stand catches his attention.

"Fucking hell." He mutters as he stares at a newspaper with her face plastered on the front page. Dabi tries to remember what he was doing when he was only nineteen. Although it was only four years ago, he can't help but to feel like it was a lifetime ago. He moves past the stares of Brisk, ignoring her bright smiles in the photos they used. It wasn't his fault, he tells himself. She chose to fight.

She lost.

He's not sure what to do but he knows deep down in his heart that he needs to do something to make it up to Hawks. Dabi frowns at that thought, just like what he told Hawks- it's not like he was looking for a fight against Brisk. It wasn't his fault that she was deluded with the mentality of she'll be young and invincible forever. Dabi grimly mulls over that now she will be young forever. Invincible? Well, he certainly showed her otherwise but she'll be only nineteen until the end of time.

His fist clenches at his side and and closes his eyes, why is her death affecting him so much? It's probably because of Hawks he concludes darkly. Dabi reluctantly steps out of line and walks towards the back of the store.

"That damn bird is going to be the fucking death of me." He whispers to himself as he wanders into the frozen food section, looking for some frozen chicken nuggets. It probably won't fix anything but, hey, it's the thought that counts right? Dabi nearly wants to laugh. Hey, sorry for killing a hero. Want some dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets? He thinks to himself. Nothing says sorry like a plateful of steaming dinosaur chicken nuggets.

What he doesn't notice as he's searching the shelves, wondering if he should get the thirty or ninety count, is a slight woman that makes her way down the aisle. He doesn't hear as she quietly asks him if he could move either. When she timidly taps his shoulder to get his attention, only then is he startled from his thoughts. Dabi turns slightly and finds himself go weak.

Standing behind him is a short woman with a shock of white hair pulled back and startlingly turquoise eyes behind thin rimmed glasses staring back at him with an expression of shock and disbelief. Dabi feels his stomach sink down to his stomach as he comes to the realization that he's face to face with someone that he'd never think that he would see again in his life.

"You." Fuyumi's voice is so soft that he nearly misses what she said, he's still rooted to his spot as he watches her eyes narrow.

"Fuck." Is all Dabi has a chance to say before her freezing fist is brought up and crashes against his jaw.


	13. Chapter 12

"I can't believe you!" Fuyumi hisses as Dabi rubs his jaw tenderly.

"You cant believe me?! You're the one that just up and fucking socked me in the jaw for no good reason!" He glowers at his little sister and she meets his glare with an icy stare of her own.

"No good reason? Touya, look at you. You're a disaster. A murdering disaster." Dabi crosses his arms and rises an eyebrow at Fuyumi, allowing a small smirk.

"Touya who? Don't know him." Fuyumi jabs a slender finger in his face and narrows her eyes.

"Don't play these games with me, Touya." Even after ten years of not seeing Fuyumi, Dabi knows better than to push his luck. Instead he raises his hands in defeat and picks up his dropped grocery basket.

"Alright, Yumi-"

"You don't have the right to call me Yumi anymore." She deadpans and Dabi sighs.

"Fair enough, Fuyumi. Okay, you caught me red handed. I know. It's a crime to get dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets. Oh, the atrocity of it. I don't know what's worse," Dabi glances down at his basket and studies the ninety count of nuggets with a strange look, "The malformed dinosaur shapes or the mysterious ingredients they put in it." He picks up the bag and studies the ingredient listing with a quirked eyebrow.

"Like, what is guar gum doing in there? What even is guar gum?" Fuyumi glances down at the bag in Dabi's hand and back at him with a puzzled expression.

"What are you even talking about?" She shakes her head and starts glaring again, "You need to come home with me."

"Excuse you but I've things to do today." Dabi tries to move past her but Fuyumi blocks the way.

"Like kill another hero?" He thinks back to Hawks and frowns. There might come a day where hes tasked to kill the hero. Physically, he's sure he could take on Hawks. He's seen what he does on his off days and isn't too impressed. Deep down he has to admit to at least being impressed by nearly inhaling a large serving of extra buttery popcorn, slightly worried for Hawks' arteries' well-being but impressed nonetheless.

Emotionally though? Imagine the toll.

"Maybe so." Dabi cant help but to chuckle when he spies Fuyumi's eyes widen, "Now if you excuse me. I have to take care of my stupid bird."

"I thought you hated birds." Fuyumi moves in front of Dabi again and he runs his hand impatiently through his hair and pulls the face mask back up.

"I thought so too." Dabi mumbles and he doesn't give her a chance to say anything else before shouldering past her; Fuyumi gives out a squeak of surprise and for a moment- Dabi thinks hes scotch free before a cold hand grabs hold of his ear and yanks him down.

"You're not going anywhere Touya. We have to talk." Dabi struggles to wiggle out of her grasp and side eyes her.

"There's nothing to talk about, lemme go. You've no idea who you're talking to." Fuyumi snorts and rolls her eyes.

"I see my deadbeat older brother thinking he's hot shit because he fell in with the wrong crowd. I see someone who has nothing to give but bad decisions and death." Dabi stops struggling and furrows his eyebrows at her.

"That's not true, sometimes I have pizza." She lets out an exasperated sigh, letting go of him and looks up towards the ceiling as if asking a higher entity to grant her patience. They stand awkwardly in silence before Dabi clears his throat.

"My chicken nuggets are thawing out... just to let you know." She still says nothing and Dabi kicks at the ground not entirely sure on what to do.

"Why?" He seems to be getting this question a lot lately. Not only from people around him but also from himself. Dabi shrugs and holds his arms out from his sides and offers his little sister a lop sided smile.

"What can I say, I got daddy issues."

"You don't see Natsu, Shouto or me going and killing people."

"You got me there." Dabi shoots her a finger gun and Fuyumi shakes her head.

"Come on, we're going." Dabi groans and pushes his sister away from him, chuckling.

"Told you, _Fuyumi_ I'm not going anywhere with you. I got bigger fish to fry than to spend my day here chatting in the middle of the frozen foods aisle. Now. If you excuse me." He makes a move towards the the front of the store before Fuyumi offers Dabi a sad smile.

"I wish things didn't have to turn out like this."

"Yeah, well, can't change the past. Gotta live in the moment. What's done is done." She shakes her head and sets down her basket and rolls back her shoulders.

"I wasn't talking about that, I was talking about this." She brings up her fist and punches his throat deftly. He nearly doubles over and begins to cough, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes as he backs away from his sister.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He manages to ask between gasps for breath. Fuyumi says nothing and picks up both of their baskets and with an iron grasp, she latches onto the crook of Dabi's elbow and drags him forward.

"You have ten years' worth of things to explain to me. I'll pay for your stuff. Just come back with me, we don't have to go back to the house."

"Fuyumi, you better pay for my stuff. I'm going to have to go to the hospital probably after this." Dabi rubs at his tender throat and glowers at her as she barely glances back at him.

"You don't look like you've been to the hospital in forever. You'll live."

"Talk about sisterly love." Dabi mutters as he allows her to drag him towards the check out line.

"Where are we going?" He looks around and Fuyumi tells him to be quiet as she takes him down a small and quiet street. Dabi complies with her and eventually they find themselves in front of a small grade school.

"We can talk here, this is where I work." He smiles fondly down at her as Fuyumi fumbles with her keys.

"You really did become a teacher, huh?"

"Yeah, this is my second year teaching." Dabi says nothing but nods as he looks up at the small school. As long as Dabi could remember, Fuyumi always wanted to be a teacher. She'd even play school with them after they were done with actual school. He'd always be the dutiful older brother and play along even though he was usually bored out of his mind playing school with her and his brothers.

Strangely enough, he doesn't remember what he actually wanted to be when he grew up.

Fuyumi leads him through the quiet hallways and into a cozy classroom. She flips the switch on and as the lights flicker to life, he spies two picture frames of her with her class resting on her desk and he picks up one of the frames to get a better look and he hums at the smiling faces that surround Fuyumi.

"Cute kids." Fuyumi looks up from putting the groceries in the mini fridge from underneath her desk and she smiles softly at the picture in his hand.

"They're good kids too." Dabi sets it down and sits on her desk, Fuyumi says nothing but he can still see her disapproving frown.

"Touya, what happened to you?" She asks timidly from her chair and he feels his smile drop. For a moment, Dabi stays quiet and studies the staples that dig into the skin of his wrist and he sighs.

"That's a helluva long story, Fuyumi." She nods and sniffles.

"We all thought you were dead for the longest time." Dabi closes his eyes and tries to push down the feeling of his heart going out for his siblings. He supposes it wasn't the best timing to go rogue on the same night that their mom gets shipped off to a hospital and Shouto gets his own scarring.

That's all blood under the bridge though.

"What made you realize that I'm still kicking?" He refuses to open his eyes to meet her gaze, Dabi turns his head to the side out of her sight and bites his lip. For the first time in a long time, he finds himself getting worried. What does she have to say so badly that she just about abducted him from his shopping?

"A hero came by the other week asking about you." He hears a soft giggle and his eyes shoot open, "I knew something was up, why would the Number Two Hero go asking around about someone that was gone for ten years? There was just something about how he hung onto every word I had to say about you, he had a look in his eyes." Dabi shakes his head and curses Hawks, he realizes that curiosity may have killed the cat and decided to add on to that. Determination will get the bird murdered.

"Of course." Dabi mutters and plucks out a stray thread in his hoodie.

"He seemed pretty worried about you, Tou."

"Yeah?" Dabi finally looks up at his sister but immediately turns away when he sees a shit eating grin on her face.

"So, you want to tell me how Hawks, Japan's Number Two Hero, knows you?" Dabi fiddles with one of the staples in his chin and side glances her with a smirk.

"Would you believe me if I said that we're fucking?" Might as well just throw her in for a loop, he suppresses the urge to laugh when her eyes widen in surprise before narrowing back down.

"Not really." Dabi hops off the desk and roams over to the windows and studies the cityscape with a small smile.

"Well then, you're gonna find my whole story unbelievable then." He starts to tell Fuyumi about the petty crime he's done before joining up with The League and then he touches here and there about the occasional robberies, mugging and recruiting he's been tasked with. Dabi skirts around the whole kidnapping of the angry explosion boy of Yuuei, certain that she's either read it in the news or heard it from Endeavor.

He pours his heart out on his own personal mission of burning all the abusers he comes across, Dabi mindfully keeps the actual number of how many people he's killed but assures her that he's making good progress on his self assigned mission.

He even finds himself telling Fuyumi stupid silly little stories about the other members that he works closely with. Like the time that all of them dressed up as Shigaraki for Halloween- much to Shigaraki's annoyance. He even mentions about how he's been officially dubbed as Toga's honorary big brother. Dabi pretends not to see Fuyumi's gentle smile as he reaccounts fond memories of The League.

Then, he gets to Hawks. Dabi tries to keep it as touch and go as possible but as soon as he starts talking about the complexities of their relationship, Fuyumi starts to pepper him with questions and for the first time in a very long time- Dabi feels happy to actually share something about his life. He's spent so much of his life keeping everything internalized, that he forgot how nice it feels to actually get things off of his chest.

Soon, Dabi and Fuyumi find themselves swapping childhood memories and the small classroom is filled with their laughter.

Fuyumi wipes a tear from her eye as she settles down from her laughing fit.

"I still can't believe how Natsu got stuck up on the roof like that."

"Some mysteries are better left unsolved." Dabi replies. Suddenly, out of nowhere the levee finally breaks and Dabi starts to cry, startling Fuyumi.

"Touya, what's wrong?" He shakes his head. Fuyumi gets up and wraps her arms around him, a cold hand brushes down his hair and she cradles him back and forth.

"It's okay, Touya." Dabi clenches at the back of Fuyumi's shirt and continues to cry.

"I'm a real fuck up, huh?" He feels her shake her head and her cold hands cup his cheeks, pulling him away from their hug and she stares at him with concern.

"Touya, look at me." He reluctantly looks up and tries to blink away the tears. Fuyumi offers a smile and gently pulls up on his cheeks until he's wearing a mock smile of his own.

"You're not a fuck up Tou, it's never too late to turn your life around." Tears start to prick at the corners of her eyes and soon they're clinging to each other crying over their lost childhood and what happy memories were robbed of them.

"You're always welcome back, Touya. Natsu still talks about you all the time and I know that Shouto still remembers you too," Fuyumi pauses, "Mom would like to see you too."

"I know."

"We all miss and love you." Dabi bows his head and nods.

"...I know." Fuyumi studies Dabi, chewing on her lip before she pulls open a drawer and scrawls something on a piece of paper.

"Here," She tucks the paper into Dabi's hoodie pocket and smiles softly, "My phone number... please, call me if you ever need anything. Don't you ever dare drop off the face of the earth ever again after I finally found you Touya."

"Alright, alright. I'll keep in touch." Fuyumi lurches forward and hugs him tightly.

"You better!"

Dabi thanks Fuyumi again for the ride and clutches his grocery bag closely to himself and stares up at the apartment building with a sigh. One emotional conversation down, one more to go. His phone says that it's only three in the afternoon so he knows that Hawks won't be off for another three or so hours, the perfect amount of time for him to redye his hair and pick up the apartment and throw the chicken nuggets in the convention oven.

Hawks arrives later than usual and Dabi watches as he stumbles inside the apartment, his normally sun kissed skin is pale and he looks around the apartment haggardly.

"Hawks." His wary eyes fall on Dabi and he makes his way towards Dabi before pulling back uncertainly, looking around the apartment again, his wings flutter uncertainly and he sends a feather out to lock the front door before kneeling down before Dabi.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Dabi eyes Hawks suspiciously as the man before him peels off his gloves and embraces Dabi, a flash of red catches his eye and he notices that Hawks enveloped them in his wings.

Hawks kisses Dabi on the tip of his nose and he notices Hawks struggle to hide a grim frown.

"What's going on?" Hawks stiffens at Dabi's question and sighs.

"I think that we should move." Dabi pulls back from Hawks with a startle.

"What?"


	14. Chapter 13

Maybe Toga was right, Dabi begrudgingly admits, he's a pretty shitty villain. How could he let his guard go so far down that he didn't notice a horde of police officers and heroes surrounding the apartment complex? He takes a second to peer out of the window to his right and spies several heroes perched across some rooftops and inwardly groans when he recognizes Edgeshot against the setting sun. Dabi has dealt with that one in the past and really rather not tango with him again.

He snaps back to reality as two of the five officers ram into him, shoving him against the wall roughly.

"Watch it. I bruise easily." Dabi mutters, lifting his head away from the wall. He can feel his nose already starting to swell from being rammed against the wall, "What happened to being treated like a decent human?"

"You lost all rights to that after your little killing spree in Hosu."

"Well, I guess you got me there."

One of the officers grabbles for the quirk cancellation handcuffs as the other roughly presses Dabi's head back against the wall with a sneer.

"Shut up, scum." He can't help but to chuckle at the man's contempt behind his eyes and he offers an icy smile back at the officer. It's been a good one, Dabi reflects. He knows that once the officer slaps on those handcuffs, there's nothing that he can do and Dabi idly tells himself that it's probably for the best anyway. He knows that Hawks will be able to get away, after all, he's spent his entire childhood conditioning to be a top tier puppet for the Hero Public Safety Commission. Just a little flap of those wings of his, and off he goes- twinkling into the sunset. Finally a free bird.

"Hawks, you are under arrest for insubordination and for fraternizing with the enemy." Dabi jerks at the woman's decree and he manages to siddle his head to look at Hawks.

Tension is nearly suffocating in the small apartment as Hawks stares back incredulously at the group of officers. He doesn't make a move to escape the apartment and instead, is rooted to the spot in disbelief. Hawks' eyes worriedly meets Dabi's and in his frightened gaze, Dabi can just almost hear the panicked thoughts that are screeching through Hawks' mind.

Dabi can't go to Tartarus with his last memory of Hawks like this.

He sighs and turns away from Hawks, looking one of the officers square in the eye.

"It's been nice playing cops and villains with you. Maybe next time I won't go so easy on you though." He drawls, feeling the corner of his mouth curve into a mirthless grin. Dabi gives himself a second to brace himself for what's to come next- knowing the pain will be just as unbearable as it was the first time he ignited himself on fire. Only instead of using self immolation for cosmetic reasons, this is to give Hawks the chance he needs to escape.

Oh, the distance he goes for the man he loves.

It starts in his heart, he can already feel the rippling heat and he clenches his jaw tightly as he wills the fire to expand within his body. Dabi knows it takes just milliseconds but to him, the agony of being cooked from the inside feels like an eternity. He can feel the fire growing and consuming every inch of his body. Dabi struggles to take in a deep breath, his lungs feel like they're shriveling against the scorching intensity of his quirk. In a powerful burst the fire expels from his body and it fills the apartment with a flash of bright blue flames that lick up and down the apartment hungrily.

He's released from the two officers who give out a shout in pain and Dabi stumbles away from the wall, trying to focus. His head feels like it's about to split into two and his sutures are iron hot against his smoking skin. Dabi pushes down the urge to crawl into a corner of the apartment and just let himself be engulfed in the fury of his fire and instead takes a shaking step forward.

A few red feathers whiz past him and through the azure flames and black smoke, he sees the silhouettes of the officers being carried out of the apartment. A hero through and through, Dabi realizes. He'd smile if he didn't feel like his skin wasn't about to peel away from the immense heat.

The building starts to groan and creak as the fire grows hotter and he starts to think that maybe he's gone a bit overboard with this one.

Rubbing the smoke from his eyes just makes things worse as the arid air makes his eyes burn and he has to blink several times just to stop seeing in double. He takes another step forward and pushes a hand against his temple, Dabi feels like he's going to pass out but he needs to make sure that Hawks made it out before he lets himself become the last victim of his quirk. Dabi always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, what could be more glorious for him to go down like this? He'd be in the headlines for days.

A hacking cough grabs his attention and through the smoke, he can make out a pair of singed red wings. Hawks is prone on the floor, with one hand outstretched towards him and the other covering his face. Dabi feels a tremor and knows he's on a time crunch, the building can collapse at any given second.

Without hesitation, Dabi bends down and picks Hawks up- thankful that Hawks is as light as a bird. He frowns when he sees Hawks' normally smooth skin, blistered over and shiny from the fire and makes a note to steal some burn cream later. He doesn't know if he could live with himself if Hawks became as burnt as himself.

"Touya." Dabi looks down at Hawks, startled. Hearing that name come from Hawks throws him off guard. He doesn't let himself dwell on it though, Dabi cradles Hawks' head close to his chest as he exits out of a broken window.

There are three things that Dabi is currently thankful for. The first is a few moments after leaving the building, it collapses. All heroes and law enforcers are now preoccupied with taming down the fire and getting onlookers away from the scene. The second is how easily concealable Hawks' wings are now that they are small. Being covered in soot, both Hawks and Dabi look unrecognizable. The third being that the sun had finished setting and under cover of the chaos and darkness, they're able to steal into the crowd- blending in with the other survivors of the demolished apartment.

Dabi doesn't push his luck and after a second of catching his breath, he picks Hawks back up and turns into an alley.

Taking twists and turns down the backstreets, hoping to avoid all incoming heroes, Dabi finally can't go on any further and gently sets down Hawks against the wall and fishes out his phone, Hawks is still unconscious and Dabi hopes that he wakes up soon. As Dabi finishes sending his location to Kurogiri, approaching footsteps makes him look up from his phone.

"You've made quite a spectacle back there." A low and quiet voice finishes with a tired sigh and Dabi whips around with a snarl, raising his hands- ready for a fight.

A dark figure leans casually against the wall before pushing off and slouches forward. Gold goggles glint off of the streetlamp and Dabi lowers his hands, knowing that his quirk is nullified. A sly smile flickers on Eraserhead's features before turning stoic.

"How about you make this easier on the both of us and just surrender?" Eraserhead shifts his weight on to his right leg and crosses his arms, "Tonight was my night off, I want to go back to bed." Dabi places himself between Eraserhead and Hawks, hoping that the underground hero doesn't spot him.

"I'm _really_ not in the mood for this." His fists ball up when the hero standing before him snorts and shakes his head.

"And do you think that _I_ am?" Eraserhead's scarf starts to rise and when Dabi thinks that it's endgame, a misty portal apparates and a pair of smokey yellow eyes blink out from the portal. Dabi sighs with relief when he spies Hawks being lifted into the portal. He takes a step backwards and feels the gentle pull of the warp gate, Dabi doesn't take his eyes off of Eraserhead and flips him off with a grin.

"Adios, Eraserhead." Dabi can't help but to chuckle as Eraserhead rushes towards them. As the purple mist envelopes him, Dabi closes his eyes and feels the strength leave his body.

Dabi jerks up in a bed that he doesn't recognize and swings his feet over the edge of the bed. He's confused and in a daze, it's too dark for him to be able to make out anything in the room. As soon as his feet touch the cold wooden floor, a door creaks open and light floods in from the hallway.

"Stay in bed, shit lips. You done fucked up this time." Dabi narrows his eyes at the bored drawl and doesn't make a move to go back to the bed, he hears a sigh and the light switch is flicked on. Shigaraki stands there with Kurogiri behind him. Both men are studying him in silence and Dabi reluctantly sits on the edge of the bed.

"Honestly. You've caused me more trouble than the fucking heroes at this point." Shigaraki mumbles as he steps into the room, "If I knew you were going to make this much of a mess, I wouldn't have even let you into The League." Dabi warily watches his boss sit down next to him, after a moment, he sighs.

"Then let me out." Shigaraki's eyebrows shoot up in surprise and answers Dabi in a scowl.

"You'd be branded as a traitor."

"...I know." Shigaraki shakes his head disbelievingly and drums his fingers against his thigh.

"You've really gotten soft, you know that right?" Dabi only nods and he hears a dry chuckle, "All this just for a pesky hero?" He side glances Shigaraki and holds his gaze.

"I," Dabi pauses and draws in a breath, "I love him, Shigaraki."

"Are you willing to throw everything away for him?"

"I think you and I already know the answer to that." Shigaraki stands up and faces Dabi with a grim frown, a hand inching up towards his neck.

"I knew I should've tasked Mr. Compress to deal with Hawks in the beginning. I should just kill you for being betraying The League right now and get it done and over with."

"Don't you dare!" Toga throws herself in front of Dabi and faces Shigaraki with her shoulders squared, "You'll have to go through me if you want to kill him!"

"Toga, get out of th-"

"I support Toga's decision! You'll have to go through me too!" Twice shouts and dives into the room, Spinner closely follows- shaking his head.

"I can't lose my gambling buddy, so you'll have to fight me too." Dabi is speechless as he stares from each of the three that placed themselves in front of him, all facing Shigaraki with defiance.

"Don't leave me out either." Dabi turns towards the voice and sees Hawks leaning against the doorway with a lopsided smile. Hawks shoots Dabi a wink and saunters into the room with his hands thrown into his pockets, much to Dabi's relief- he's not sporting any burns.

"Get out of here, all of you." Shigaraki hisses out as now four people stand between Shigaraki and Dabi. Toga stands on her toes and jabs a finger up towards Shigaraki.

"Don't you dare." Toga repeats and Shigaraki merely shakes his head.

"You all are ridiculous." Shigaraki drops his hand and some the tension leaves the room, "Leave if you want, but you won't be receiving any help from me or anyone else in The League. The moment you leave the front door, you'll be nothing." He heads out the room and glances over his shoulder, "Farewell, Dabi."

Saying his last goodbyes to the rest of The League is more taxing than he previously thought. The second he would pry himself away from a crying Twice, Toga would latch on and start blubbering about how they have to keep in contact forever. Of course, he agreed. Not only to quell her tears but also because she's his honorary sister.

He's done running from his past and his family.

Something in him had changed that day in Hawks' apartment. It's strange, he thinks. After being bathed in the hellfire of his own quirk- he feels as if the old him had burned away leaving nothing but ash from the fire's wake. From the ashes of who he once was fell away and from them, he rose again.

As Hawks whistles merrily besides him, he takes out his last burner phone and punches in a number on a scrap of paper that had somehow survived the fire.

It rings once, twice and on the third ring, his call is picked up.

"Hello?" A soft voice speaks into the phone and he smiles.

"Hey, it's me. Touya." In the corner of his eye Hawks stops dead in his tracks and beams up at Touya with a smile that could outshine a thousand suns. Touya doesn't let himself get distracted and keeps his eyes set on the horizon, "Mind if we swing by and say hello in person?"


	15. Epilogue

Touya's earlier bravado seeps away as he finds himself standing in front of his childhood manor, Hawks stands beside him- lacing his fingers behind his neck and gives a low whistle.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you could've been my sugar daddy."

"You forgot the part where I ran away and got cut out of Endeavor's will... If I was ever on it to begin with. Sorry. No money for you, birdie." Hawks feigns a pout but quickly smiles back up at Touya.

"One day I'll be able to live the life of luxury, eh?" Touya snorts and gently pushes Hawks away from him.

"In your dreams." Both men fall quiet again and Touya takes in a deep breath, trying to remind himself that they're here for a reason.

"Hey," Hawks rests a hand on Touya's shoulder and gives him a reassuring grin, "I'll be right here with you. Stop freaking out."

"'M not freaking out." Hawks rolls his eyes and thwacks Touya on the back with one of his wings- pushing him closer towards the large front door.  
"Then go up there and knock on the door."

Easier said than done Touya thinks bitterly.

With Hawks cheering him on from behind, Touya takes a step forward. Another and another until the large front door is looming over him. He swallows down his worried thoughts and brings up a hand- tentatively brushing a finger over the dip in the doorbell for a moment before pressing it in. Touya hears a distant chime and then silence.  
It's nearly overbearing having to wait in those few suspended moments of silence before the front door slides open to reveal a smiling Fuyumi.

"Touya!" She gathers him into a tight hug and after a second's pause, Touya hugs her back just as tightly. Fuyumi lets go of Touya and peers over his shoulder and gives a small wave to Hawks before looking back up at Touya with an amused expression. Touya awkwardly rubs the back of his neck and clears his throat.

"So-" Fuyumi waves him off and starts to smile, motioning them to follow her into the large manor. Touya and Hawks take off their shoes and Touya takes a moment to look around the inside of the house, taking in a deep breath. Everything is just the same as he remembered, it's nearly strange that over ten years- nothing has changed, yet, at the same time- everything has changed.

"You know father," Fuyumi replies as if reading Touya's mind, "He's not one for change." Touya notices Hawks taking a curious look around the and even picks up a lone picture frame that catches his attention. Touya decides not to look over Hawks' shoulder to see the photo and instead wonders if his room is still the same or if Endeavor decided to burn everything inside to eradicate Touya from memory.

"Natsu should be getting home soon from college," Fuyumi pauses and plays with a stray strand of hair, "Shouto is here though... if you would like to see him?" Touya feels the stares from both Fuyumi and Hawks, he rests his weight against a wall and crosses his arms with what he hopes is a confident smile.

"Wouldn't hurt to see the squirt again." He tastefully decides not to mention the time he stole one of Shouto's friends during their summer camp and had a nice little reunion with his little brother for a grand total of five minutes. Judging from the expressions from both Fuyumi and Hawks- they're clearly recalling Touya's stunt. Thankfully, neither say anything. Touya can tell that Hawks wants to crack a joke about who knows what from the smile he hides behind a gloved hand.

"Okay, why don't you head to the living room while I go and get Shouto." Touya narrows his eyes as he sees the smallest hint of a smile on Fuyumi's lips. Hawks whispers something to her and she stifles a giggle before heading down one of the hallways. Touya turns his glare to Hawks, who rolls his eyes at Touya and throws an arm over Touya's shoulders with a big grin.

"Why don't cha show me to the living room? My wings are killing me."

"You're the one that wanted to fly us here." Touya grumbles and with a jerk of his head, motions for Hawks to follow him. Honestly, Touya thinks, why would Hawks even think that it was a good idea to fly them through the sky when they're some of the most wanted people in Japan currently. Sometimes Hawks is just an enigma to him. Well, if Touya has to be totally truthful- Hawks is usually an enigma to him way more than just sometimes.

"What's the point of having a quirk if I can't even use it?" Hawks complains under his breath from behind him and Touya ignores him; instead he finds himself reminiscing of older times. He swallows thickly and tells himself that he's not here to take a trip down memory lane. What was supposed to be a quick meeting with Fuyumi is starting to turn out to be a family reunion. If Touya had realized that earlier, he would've dressed a little bit better.

"How do you not get lost in this place?" Hawks asks out loud and Touya glances over his shoulder at him with a smirk.

"Unlike you, I don't get lost inside a cardboard box."

"Shut up!" Touya chuckles and continues to lead Hawks down an additional left turn before reaching the living room. Touya notes the only thing that changed in here is the graduation from a small television to a large curved television. They sit on an uncomfortable sofa and Touya watches as Hawks drums his fingers and flitters his wings to a beat inside of his head.

"-ber to be nice." Fuyumi's voice floats down the hall and Touya turns his head towards the approaching footsteps and a low voice mutters something that Touya can't pick up. A warm hand covers his own and he relaxes at the touch.

Touya sees Fuyumi enter the room first and behind her stands a tall and slender teen with the glaringly obvious scar that could only belong to Shouto. Shouto's blue and grey eyes land on him and Touya manages to give him a peace sign.

"Hello again." Shouto still says nothing, looking Touya up and down with indifference. Good to see that he still has the personality of a block of ice, Touya thinks. Shouto pockets his phone without breaking his stare and Fuyumi snakes behind Shouto to give him an encouraging push into the room.

"It's funny," Shouto starts, his voice low and flat- reminding Touya of his own. "Mother would talk about how you were so handsome when I was younger." Touya says nothing, confused. Shouto moves to the chair across from them and sits down with a ghost of a smirk.

"I wonder, now what she would say if she saw that you look like a half dead and rabid opossum that was found in a dumpster?" The living room is plunged into silence as Hawks looks from Touya to Shouto- looking like he's about ten seconds away from bursting into a fit of laughter. Fuyumi pales and takes a step towards Touya's younger brother, who takes out his phone back out and begins to type again without a care in the world.

"Shouto y-" She's interrupted by Touya's own laughter and she looks from him to Shouto, whose grin has grown into something a little more relaxed. Fuyumi shakes her head slightly before smiling too.

"Wow, glad to know you've become a Natsuo junior."

"Would you rather have me become like you?" Shouto glances up from his phone and tilts his head to the side in mock wonder. Touya stretches and regards Shouto coolly. Fuyumi moves between the two brothers and frowns down at Shouto.

"Shouto, I swea-" Touya waves off Fuyumi and leans forward with a quirked eyebrow. Shouto pockets his phone and leans forward too, bringing his hands together to rest his chin on them before placing his elbows on his knees.

"Don't tell me that you never wanted to stick it to the man? I could teach you the ways of the dark side," Touya pauses- unable to hide his grin anymore, "We've even got cookies."

"Touya, I thought we talked about this," Hawks warns, "No more recruiting!"

"Tempting offer, but I'll have to decline." Shouto crosses his legs and inspects his right hand, "I don't have any interest with an organization that supports the Illuminati." Touya reels back and shares a glance with Hawks before turning his attention back to Shouto.

"Whoever told you that?" Shouto smugly shakes his head and leans back into the back of his chair.

"I got my ways." Great. Touya thinks, he's got the bluntness of Natsuo and is a conspiracy theorist just like his old boss, Shigaraki. Touya promises himself that if Shouto starts talking about sneeple, he's outta here. Shouto's smile goes neutral again before he pulls his phone back out from his pocket and begins to type- barely paying Touya any attention. Fuyumi sighs and rests her hand on the top of Shouto's dual white and red hair.

"Sorry about Shouto, he's been just about glued to his phone lately," She smiles down at her little brother fondly before looking back up at Touya and Hawks, "Can you believe our baby brother has friends now?" Shouto grunts in annoyance but doesn't make a move to get away from Fuyumi.

A slam of the front door startles three of them while Shouto remains fixated to whoever he's texting- Touya figures his little brother wouldn't notice if he got smacked upside the head at this point and makes a mental note to try it later.

"Natsu's home." Shouto states before looking back up to Touya with a raised eyebrow.

True to his word, footsteps thunder down the hallway and in a whirlwind of white hair, varsity jacket and a messenger bag that's launched into the air and crashes against the wall, spilling a collection of thick textbooks and loose paper. Bright grey eyes level with Touya and a hearty laugh fills the room.

"Well I'll be damned! Yumi, you're supposed to take the trash iout/i not bring it in!" Natsuo pulls Touya up and nearly breaks his ribs in a spine crushing hug.

"Nastu- I can't breathe." Touya manages to gasp out and Natsuo sets Touya back down with another laugh.

"Tou! It's really you!" He takes a step back and studies Touya with a large grin, "Fugly, but it's really you!" Touya hears Hawks lets out a bark of laughter and what seems to be a snort from Shouto. Fuyumi smacks Natsuo lightly on the broad expanse of his shoulder and chides him to be more polite.

"It's fine, Fuyumi." Touya simply replies, "Their sense of humor is all that they got going for themselves anyway."

"If all we got is our sense of humor, then you must got nothing!" Natsuo shoots back and Shouto doesn't bother to reply- too absorbed in his own conversation. Hawks exchanges a look between the four siblings before pulling out his own phone to give them a sense of privacy.

"Hawks, why don't you help me get dinner ready?" Fuyumi offers and Hawks jumps to his feet.

"Hell yeah! What are we making?"

"Soba." Shouto answers from his phone and Natsuo groans, running a hand down his face.

"Again? We just had soba."

"Too bad." Shouto replies matter-of-factly, Natsuo huffs and frowns down at Touya.

"See what I've been putting up with these past ten years? Didn't have my big bro here to protect me from these two chucklefucks."

"Natsuo! Language!" Fuyumi covers Shouto's ears, who can't be bothered enough to care. Hawks tuts and shakes his head at Fuyumi.

"Fuyumi, you do know who he goes to school with- right? I'm sure he's heard way worse."

"I have." Shouto adds and Fuyumi only sends a halfhearted glare in Hawks direction before sighing and tells Hawks to follow her to the kitchen to help with dinner. Hawks waves at the brothers before following her down a hallway.

"You know," Natsuo starts, side eyeing Touya with a mischievous grin, "I beat your high score on Street Fighter Two." Touya immediately narrows his eyes at his younger brother and cracks his fingers.

"Not for much longer." Touya and Natsuo spend the rest of the evening battling against each other on Touya's ancient Super Nintendo Entertainment System that had somehow survived after all of these years as Shouto watches from the sofa- occasionally taking jabs at either brother. Eventually, Touya crowns himself the victor once more and soon after- Fuyumi and Hawks return with several dishes.

All during dinner, Natsuo and Hawks don't stop talking and Touya finds it nice. He realizes this is what he's been missing in his life- the warm bickering of his family. Their bickering reminds Touya of his time in The League and decides to send Toga a quick text to see how she's doing. He'd never admit it out loud, but he's starting to miss her.

Almost instantaneously, her caller ID pops up and Touya excuses himself and steps outside- needing a smoke anyway.

"I've missed you so much!" Toga's voice crackles through the phone and Touya walks down the block, pausing to light a cigarette before continuing down a once familiar sidewalk.

"Yeah, me too. How's everyone doing?" Touya still can't shake his curiosity for his old colleagues and even his old boss. Toga cheerfully fills him in on the latest gossip that's floating around and Touya smiles and stares up at the sky, thinking that he could get used to such a domestic lifestyle again.

Perhaps if Touya had been paying more attention to his surroundings and not lulled into a state of false sense of security from being near his old childhood home, he might've noticed an oncoming hero.

Perhaps if he hadn't been zapped with a paralyzing quirk, Touya would've stood a chance against the hero as he stands over Touya's stuck form. His cellphone clatters to the ground and he can still hear Toga, now panicked, asking what's going on.

"This is for my sister, you asshole." He hears a crunch and Toga's voice cuts to silence. All Touya could do is watch in quiet horror as the masked hero slaps on quirk cancellation handcuffs over his hands.

Touya can't even move a muscle as he prays to anything that someone will step out of the manor and onto the street to look for him. Of course, no one comes and the hero hefts Touya up on one of his shoulders and sneers.

"You're going to rot in Tartarus for the rest of your life." No matter how much he fights to get control back over his body, it's a lost cause. Touya can do nothing as he's carried far from the manor, away from his newly reunited family, away from the man he loves.

The only thing that's waiting for him now is a cold, dark and unforgiving cell for the rest of time.


End file.
